The Weight Of the World
by NegativeBlue
Summary: Emma knew she had screwed things up. She knew from the way Regina avoided her and all the words that weren't said. But the journey she had hoped would fix things between them, instead confronts them with a force of nature threatening to tear apart everything they care about. (SQ-BigBang fic, post Going Home)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **The setting for this story is (a few years) after the episode Going Home. But everyone went back to Fairytale Land, including Emma and Henry. There are no fairies, since they mysteriously vanished, but otherwise I left the framework of the show mostly intact.

All my thanks to Raee (Chocolate-cream soldier on tumblr) for the fanart/inspiration in creating this story. More thanks to my beta Antti for his support and help with correcting mistakes.

This is a repost. Though I'm tweaking a few minor things. The complete story can already be found on Ao3. I'll slowly start to upload it on fanfiction the coming two weeks or so.

**1.**

* * *

><p>It barely reached her ears, the footsteps as they approached her through the still rain-soaked grass. There were some birds whistling in the tree-branches above her and something was moving through the underbrush nearby. None of it was cause for an alarm, but she still sat up a little straighter and pushed away the thoughts that had been plaguing her for the better part of the day.<p>

"I'll admit I don't blame you for wanting to return here every now and then."

Regina smiled at the words, having known right from the start who it was that had entered her domain, though she didn't turn around to face Emma yet.

"It really is as if the outside world doesn't exist here, isn't it?"

Peering at the motionless pond of water in front of her, Regina's smile grew. "I would say so yes, if it wasn't for the fact that I keep having unannounced visitors."

There was a soft sigh coming from somewhere behind her in response. "My mother I take it?"

"Hmm," Regina hummed. She dangled her feet down from the rock she had been sitting on and turned a little to face Emma.

The smile vanished when her eyes landed on Emma who was leaning against a tree in front of her. She was clad in dark brown leathers interleaved with iron, protecting most of her body and arms. A sword sat in a scabbard hanging on her hip and she was wearing a familiar looking black hooded cape. Though she had been actively trying to block the memory from entering her thoughts, the sight of the cape still brought it back. Pursing her lips, Regina banished the unwanted throwback to the past from her mind again and titled her head towards her guest.

"She thought she had wronged me I suppose, since I left while the celebrations were still ongoing. I had to reassure her that it had nothing to do with that. She stayed over a little while longer, before stealing some of my fruits and taking her leave again."

"Stealing?" Emma's eyebrows rose.

"I suppose since she is the Queen it can't really be considered as such."

Snorting, Emma toyed a little with some loose strand of her cape. Regina shook her head upon doing another quick once-over. The armored riding gear wasn't exactly standard wear for a woman, even one that often rode on a horse. And especially not one who was a Princess as well. But then again Emma had only ever worn the proper attire for women in her position a few times since they had all returned back to The Enchanted Forest, so she supposed she shouldn't have been so surprised.

"You've brought her freshly harvested fruits from your trees a few times now, you can't tell me that you are upset about her grabbing a few while she was here." Emma grinned as she launched herself away from the tree. "You know what I think? That secretly you are actually a little flattered that she likes them so much."

"Though I can't blame you for leaving early though," Emma continued as Regina watched her walk towards the pond. She bent down to grab a small pebble and skipped it across the water. "I have no idea what's the point of celebrating a two year old's birthday for that long. It's not like he's going to remember any of it anyhow."

"It's tradition dear."

"Yes, well, you know as well as I do that tradition and I don't exactly mix very well," Emma remarked sourly. She skipped another pebble and then just stood motionless staring out at the water.

"Is that the reason you are out here again instead of following proper court etiquette classes at the Castle."

"Noticed the lack of royal escorts huh?" Emma turned her head and smirked. "I have kind of mastered the art of ditching one's babysitters."

"And made yourself a giant target for any of your parent's enemies as well," Regina fired back, though she wasn't able to hide the twitching of her lips, belying her amusement at Emma's antics.

"You don't think they are being a little overprotective here? From what I've seen most people in this Kingdom love them."

"Within this Kingdom, perhaps. But outside of it? Just because your parents are paranoid doesn't mean there's no one out there to get them, Princess."

"Using a Joseph Heller quote to convince me I'm suddenly in mortal danger, cute," Emma remarked as she placed her hands on her hips. "I'm still not buying it but..funnily enough rumors of an outside threat is the reason I stopped by actually."

"Oh?" Regina stood up and took a few steps towards Emma. "And you've come to me, because…?"

"My Orcish is a little rusty," Emma offered up, a lopsided grin plastered across her face.

Huffing, Regina narrowed her eyes. "Indeed? Orcs? They live close to two weeks ride away south of here and they know very well trespassing these territories would be considered an act of war."

"Yeah I know, I have paid some attention during these classes you know?" Emma said, sounding a bit miffed. "But yes, Orcs. I travelled to Holbeck a day and half ago and since I was incognito no one paid me much mind but… Some woodsmen had returned from their cabins a bit spooked. They said they had heard noises coming from the dense forest near the borders. Two of them even claimed to have seen a large group of Orcs passing through, but the soldiers stationed at Holbeck just laughed it off."

"You put too much stock into grossly exaggerated stories told by easily frightened peasants, dear."

"But what if it's true?" Emma insisted. She walked closer still, until they were practically forced to look each other in the eyes and it made Regina's heartbeat accelerate. It was too close, and it made her think of things she much rather wanted to forget.

Swallowing thickly, Regina walked around Emma without another word. She wondered if perhaps coming here had been a mistake. It was too obvious of a location and she should've known Emma being as oblivious as she was, would seek her out here, despite the subtle hints she had dropped that she would've liked to be left alone for a while.

"Regina?"

She ignored Emma calling out for her attention and continued on her way towards the small cottage looming up between the trees ahead of her. Though she had to admit she was at least intrigued by these stories, despite knowing that Orcs would never travel this far up north. There was always the chance something else was lurking in the forest. Perhaps a simple group of bandits or marauders having crossed the mountains to the east. But the thought of accompanying Emma for however long the journey would take them was turning her stomach into knots.

It was too soon.

"Come on, where's the harm in at least checking it out?"

Sighing, Regina stopped a few paces away from the fenced off cottage. "The harm is that even though I don't believe there are actually Orcs out there, that doesn't take away the fact that there might be something else out there waiting for someone to walk into a trap."

"Now who's being paranoid?" Emma grumbled. She threw her hands up in an exasperated gesture and turned towards the bay horse tied to the far side of the fence. "Orcs or not I'm going to take a look just to be sure. I just…figured since we haven't spend so much time together lately, this would've been something you'd enjoy. You might even get to kick some green ass."

"Grey," Regina corrected, her amusement with Emma's pleading puppy-dog eyes winning out over any irritation she had been feeling.

"Excuse me?"

"They are grey, not green. I have no idea why your world kept persisting on portraying them as an savage green horde. They have a really rich culture and are decently well mannered. They're just very different than humans, and humans do tend to fear that which they don't know or understand."

"So does that mean you're going to accompany me on this trip?"

Throwing Emma an exasperated look, Regina opened the door to the cottage and walked inside. "I have no idea how you came to that conclusion from my explanation, but I have known you long enough to know that you'll likely keep badgering me until I give in." She walked straight to the closet in her bedroom, sensing that Emma was following after her. "I suppose it finally gives me an answer to the question where Henry got that trait from."

"Hey!" Emma muttered from somewhere behind her. Regina could hear Emma letting out a soft undignified huff as she walked across the small room until she was standing next to her. "Henry isn't that bad…" But then there was a contemplative look on her face as she turned towards one of the open windows. "Well he does have my parents wrapped around his little fingers, so I suppose you have a point there."

"Indeed."

She sorted through her closet for some clothes suitable for this particular journey, and mentally made a list of whatever else they would be needing. Every now and then she stole a look Emma's way, but the other woman seemed oblivious to it all and content to peer out of the window, gazing at the lush garden Regina had planted by hand. She had needed to use a little bit of magic to speed up the growth of some of the plants and trees, but overall she was satisfied with the result.

The cottage had taken a lot less work, it had been in a surprisingly good state when Snow and David had given it to her a year and a half ago as a gift. The only thing she had needed to do was buy some new oaken-wood furniture to replace the old set as well as a few rugs for her bedroom and fireplace. Though she enjoyed the spacious chambers they had given her in the castle, she enjoyed retreating here all by herself every now and then. She had brought Henry over a few times, and Emma had basically just invited herself over shortly after she had finished refurbishing the house.

As she retrieved the rucksack from where it was lying on the floor next to the closet, her mind automatically flashed back to the last time Emma had been here. They had been arguing then, ending in a frustrated and furious Emma riding off by herself.

She glanced at Emma once more, only to find her looking right at her. Things were different now. But there was a remnant of old hurt shining in Emma's eyes before she looked away a second later, and Regina wondered how different things really were. Perhaps they were just fooling themselves with the idea that everything could go back to the way they used to be.

"I got some supplies and food stored away in the saddlebags if you're wondering about that."

"Enough for two people I take it?" All she got was an impish grin in return. "Why am I not surprised. Well I suppose a small detour before heading back to the Castle isn't such a bad idea. Though I maintain the opinion that these people likely got scared by a deer rustling through the underbrush and promptly turned it into the sighting of a horde of Orcs."

Instead of receiving some kind of witty remark back, Emma remained silent and it was enough for Regina to stop fiddling with the string that kept the rucksack closed.

"Emma?" She questioned, after she had studied the other woman for a little while longer. Something about the hard lines drawn across her face made Regina a little anxious.

Though the moment Regina spoke up, Emma seemed to snap out it almost immediately. "Hm?" She questioned, sounding a bit confused and Regina was sure she had missed most of what she had said moments before.

"Something on your mind?"

"No," Emma replied immediately. She offered up a seemingly half-hearted attempt at a smile, before walking back to where Regina was hovering over the bed. "Just thinking."

"Well, you can continue your attempts to do so in the other room, I need to change."

Snorting, Emma gave her a quick once-over. "What's wrong with the dress?"

"It's not exactly suitable for riding around on a horse."

Emma immediately opened her mouth to no doubt say something in return but Regina would have none of it. Grabbing Emma just above the bracers protecting her lower-arm, she pushed her towards the door. "If you want to make yourself useful, go saddle up Alastor. I would prefer we reach Holbeck before nightfall."

"You must think me crazy to come near that demonspawn you call a horse again, have you forgotten our last encounter?"

Rolling her eyes, Regina closed the door, shutting Emma out of her bedroom. "And don't touch anything," she called out before she started to undress herself.

"I'm not making any promises." She heard the disembodied voice of Emma rang out and Regina groaned and closed her eyes.

**-x-x-x-**


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

* * *

><p>"You're awfully quiet."<p>

"I'm just enjoying the sights."

"And you can't do that while having a conversation?" Emma asked in a careful tone. The fact that Regina had barely spoken two words to her, since they had left a few hours ago had unsettled her. Though it had taken her a while until she summoned up enough courage to speak up about it.

"Something in particular on your mind?"

Emma noticed Regina pulling on the reins, slowing her horse down and she swallowed, averting her eyes to the bend in the road. "Yes..no, I guess maybe some small-talk to pass the time?"

When she noticed the horse and carriage coming from the other direction, Emma pulled the hood of her cape over her head until it was nearly covering her eyes. Though she had left a message with Henry that she was fine and just travelling for a few days before she would return, there was no doubt in her mind her parents likely had people on the lookout for her. She enjoyed not being in the spotlights, being able to go her way as she pleased, instead of having everyone drop whatever they were doing and bowing as she passed them by. And while she knew that her parents meant well with how protective they were of her, she really missed the freedom she used to have.

She thought of the years she had spent in Storybrooke and the differences between then and now. Even Henry still had trouble adjusting sometimes, but then again he was also in his early teens now, so she mused he had trouble adjusting to just about everything.

"If you want to discuss the Kingdom's latest gossip, you have picked the wrong person to accompany you, dear."

Chuckling, Emma adjusted the hood a little so she was able to spot any overhanging branches before they made contact with her head. "I assume that was a dig at my mother."

Regina's only answer was a soft humming sound, her eyes fixated on the road ahead of them.

Her behavior reminded Emma of the few times she had caught Regina off-guard during the journey. Sometimes Regina had been looking up at the clear blue skies, or she had been admiring a row of trees in full bloom and even some of the wildlife they came across. Shortly after they had ridden off from Regina's homestead, she had stopped the horse rather abruptly to stare up at some branches hanging overhead. Emma hadn't understood at first what had caught Regina's attention until she spied a large squirrel twisting around something between his little paws and munching on it. Regina had smiled at the sight and Emma had been unable to suppress a little smile of her own upon witnessing the clear joy painted across Regina's features.

"You ever think about the future?" It wasn't what she had meant to say, but somehow they were the first words that passed her lips.

"If that is your attempt at 'small talk' then perhaps you need to expand your vocabulary."

Emma rolled her eyes, despite knowing that Regina wasn't able to see it. "Humor me, just for once."

Regina slowed down Alastor even more and looked at Emma for a long moment, the expression on her face unreadable. "Do you?"

It was a cheap way to put the ball back in her court and it also unnerved Emma enough to avert her eyes away from Regina's piercing gaze and back at the dirt road. Since she had been thinking a lot about the future. Especially lately. But how the hell was she going to put into words that none of the possible scenarios were something she was looking forward to. She might've been able to adjust decently well to living in this world, but there was a large part of her that didn't enjoy all these new responsibilities that had been thrust upon her.

"I can't see myself growing old while living in my parents castle," Emma finally spoke up. "I can't see myself taking over their kingdom either." Sighing, she stole a quick look at Regina. "It's why I keep going on these trips, because that life there, in that castle full of people, it's not something I've envisioned for myself. I hate the fact that I'm chained down now because I'm the Princess. I miss being able to go wherever I want to, I miss my freedom."

It was only when she stopped talking that she realized the true extent of what she had just revealed. But she also found that once she started, she hadn't been able to stop. At least it made her feel lighter inside, sharing some of the things that had been bothering her. Besides, Emma thought as she steered her horse around a large puddle of water in the middle of the road, she had hoped sharing her burdens would be enough to evoke more than two words out of Regina this time around.

"When I was younger, I had this idealised vision of living somewhere on a farm with Daniel. A simple life, going on long horse rides, tending to crops and such and selling them to get by. Not this grand future that my mother had planned for me."

Regina seemed to be ruminating on something as she stared ahead of her and Emma wasn't able to ascertain if she should divert the conversation to a topic that wasn't so loaded as the one they had somehow stumbled into.

"What about later on?"

"I didn't think of the future much," Regina answered almost coldly. Her posture was more rigid than before and the look in her eyes was hard and distant, reminding Emma of the times she had come to blows with the Mayor back in Storybrooke. "I suppose I didn't think of anything besides of having my vengeance on your mother and making her suffer."

"Sorry," Emma muttered, unsure of how to interpret the change in Regina's demeanor. "I didn't mean to dredge up bad memories." When she got no response she babbled on nervously, "I actually was actively avoiding thinking about my future at all costs until Henry appeared in my life. You've seen my background info and saw how I kept moving from one city to another. But the funny thing is...right now I'd actually enjoy staying in one spot. Just not while also ruling over an entire kingdom and holding their lives in my hands."

"I wouldn't mind what you have right now, you know?" She continued, waiting for Regina to turn her head around and look at her.

They rode past some outlying farms and Emma found herself surprised by the myriad of emotions passing across Regina's face. She smiled broadly as she drank in the sights of the people working on the fields and the animals walking around in their enclosures and Emma could only stare on in wonder. It wasn't until they went back to travelling through more woods, that Regina's eyes finally flicked towards her. They had noticeably softened and there was something wistful in her expression when she stole one last quick look over her shoulders at the farmlands they were rapidly leaving behind them.

"I'm not sure what you're trying to say, dear."

"The lands you own. It's a beautiful location, and it's secluded. I'd love to have something like that for myself. Someplace to retreat to when things get too much to handle at the court." Emma grinned and winked at Regina to lighten the mood a little. "I'm just saying if you're ever looking to sell the place…"

There was a smirk playing around Regina's lips as she adjusted her grip on the reins a little. "Truly now? Your parents kingdom is certainly large enough for you to find a similar patch of land to shape as you deem fit."

"Yeah," Emma said in a lackluster tone, "I guess so." But it wouldn't be the same, she added mentally, while looking away from Regina and back at the road.

She thought about the moment she had found Regina sitting on a rock near the pond, earlier during the day. The casual blue dress she had worn hugging her form as she stared at the motionless water in front of her, seemingly completely at peace. It gave Emma thoughts of belonging somewhere and she had continued to study Regina for a few moments more before finally breaking the silence. But the imagery and accompanying feelings had stayed with her.

Mere weeks ago it wouldn't have given her the pause it was giving her now. But mere weeks ago there hadn't been this rift which she was sensing between her and Regina now. The bantering, the conversations they had, even the smiles didn't feel real. It felt like they were both withdrawing from the other one and Emma swallowed as she thought of how she only had herself to blame for it.

The road narrowed and though they came across a few more travellers passing them by from the opposite direction, Emma didn't pay them as much mind as she had before. She was lost in her thoughts and barely even noticed the sun getting lower in the sky.

"Do you think we'll make it before nightfall?" She asked as she tried to suppress a shiver. Though she usually preferred to pack very lightly for any of her trips throughout the Kingdom, this time around she had been cursing herself continuously for not bringing any of her fur cloaks with her. She had noticed during the previous days how rapidly the temperature dropped the moment the sun went down. It was supposed to be the spring, but at nights it still felt like it was winter instead.

"Chilly are we? If you wanted to stay warm, that armor you're wearing wasn't a good idea to wear to begin with."

"Yeah yeah," Emma muttered a bit peeved as she looked down at herself. "Rub it in, why don't you. I like it okay? It's very lightweight and sturdy." She looked at the dark brown cloak lined with fur which Regina was wearing and sighed. "And I know I'm an idiot for not thinking more about the huge changes in temperature that still occur around this time of the year and bringing a cloak along with me when I snuck out of the castle. I was kind of in a hurry."

The cape she was wearing was too thin to give her much protection against the elements and she hadn't wanted to reveal her real identity while she was in Holbeck to procure a cloak for herself for free that way. Even a few years later it still didn't feel right for her to get things without paying for them in any way, just because she was royalty now. While traveling around incognito, she preferred to take some coin with her and pay for things just like everyone else did.

"I think we'll reach the outlying farm fields within the hour or so," Regina stated as she used her free hand to adjust the hood covering her head. "Perhaps you can buy a cloak or coat in the morning before we ride out again."

"Yeah, about that…" Emma said sheepishly. Her cheeks colored when Regina lifted an eyebrow inquisitively. "I uhm..well I didn't exactly properly plan this extended road trip and all."

"Meaning what exactly?" Regina inquired, looking decidedly unamused.

It certainly did nothing to assuage Emma's discomfort about the topic. "Meaning I'm kind of low on money."

"How low?"

"I can pay for half a room at the inn?"

"Well then," Regina spoke up, a decidedly evil grin playing around her lips which put Emma ill at ease. "I suppose you'll just have to make due with spending the night in the stables, now won't you?"

-x-x-x-


	3. Chapter 3

**3.**

* * *

><p>Perhaps she should've made her sleep in the stables after all, Regina mused as her eyesight adjusted to the darkness of the room. She thought she had spotted Emma sitting in the windowsill upon waking up and a little movement from that direction confirmed her initial assumption.<p>

There was more movement and then Emma turned towards her. Soft rays of moonlight coming in from the window were playing across her face, and her eyes glittered as she stared at Regina quietly for a long moment, almost as if she was trying to ascertain if Regina was really awake.

"Did I wake you?" Emma whispered.

"I don't know," Regina croaked out while rubbing at her eyes. She drew the blankets covering her lower body back and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Grabbing the cup of water from the nightstand she took a tiny sip and swallowed thickly. "I'm not sure what woke me up. Though I believe the better question would be why you are sitting over there instead of attempting to catch a few more hours of sleep."

"It's not as if the floor is that much more comfortable for sleeping purposes than this windowsill you know?" Emma remarked with a soft chuckle. "But I did warn you beforehand that it would be better if we took two rooms."

"Perhaps, if the tavern keeper wasn't charging these ludicrous prices that would've been an option."

Emma smiled, but then her head turned towards the window again. "You should go back to sleep, I'll promise I'll try to be quiet from now on."

"That didn't really answer my question."

"Didn't it?"

Frowning, Regina peered into the darkness while briefly wondering why Emma not being able to sleep bothered her so much. But then a lot about Emma bothered her. Especially lately. And there was this tension between them, even now, that seemed almost tangible, and she feared that sooner or later something would give. She feared what she would do then. She feared how much of her carefully erected defenses, how much of her attempts to distance herself would be negated by it.

Why then was she unable to stop herself from asking these questions, while knowing that it might do more harm than good?

"Are you being deliberately obtuse?" She asked, while tugging the simple nightgown she had worn to bed down across her hips. "You usually sleep like the dead, dear, so I can only assume it must be something important that's keeping you awake. If it is your worries about the future perhaps you.."

"It's not that," Emma's voice rang out. Though she didn't move from her sitting position in the windowsill. "Well not all of it at least." There was something bitter in the chuckle that followed on the heels of those words. "Funny thing is, a part of what bothers me is exactly the same reason why I can't even talk to you about it all."

"I..have no idea what you are talking about," Regina said after a moment.

She had some suspicions however, and her eyes flicked to the bed as she contemplated cutting off the conversation before it escalated too much for her liking. But when she tilted her head back up, Emma was standing right in front of her, and her heart skipped a few beats in response.

"I'm talking about this," Emma bit out, her hands making erratic circling gestures. "Us. We were getting along, we were finally talking about things. And I enjoyed those picnics we had, I enjoyed the sights you showed Henry and me. I enjoyed the trips we took, the three of us together. So I don't understand this, the way you've been distancing yourself. I thought we talked it out? But it has been weeks now, and you still make these lame excuses each time and disappear or avoid me altogether."

There was something in the way Emma looked at her which made her want to reach out with her hands and frame Emma's face between them. Made her want to trace Emma's cheeks and jaw with the tips of her fingers; repeating the slow and gentle caresses until the sadness leaking from Emma's eyes disappeared. It was also enough to make her freeze on the spot and have her eyes be held captive by Emma's own.

She wondered what Emma would see if she looked too hard and too long. She wondered if she might give away everything she had been trying to hide for a while now. And she wondered why it always had to be Emma that evoked these emotions from her these days. Though she recognised it was nothing new. Even back in Storybrooke, when things had been complicated beyond the telling of it, there had always been something about Emma that had allowed her to be emotionally vulnerable around the other woman.

She mused those were the moments when it all started. When everything changed. And she couldn't stop. Even now.

_Even now._

"Regina?"

There was clear concern now, painted across Emma's features in bright streaks. And it made things so much harder than they should have been. Swallowing, she closed her eyes and attempted to turn around to get her bearings. But warm, slightly calloused fingers wrapped themselves gently around her wrist and stopped her.

"I need you to tell me how to fix this."

She felt Emma's fingertips drawing small soothing circles across her bare skin and it distracted her for a moment from the question asked. But as sudden as it had appeared, the hand was withdrawn again and Regina's gaze snapped back to Emma.

"You can't," she murmured, fully aware of the flicker of hurt passing across Emma's face with that answer. "Good night Emma."

Though she only got silence in return.

-x-x-x-


	4. Chapter 4

**4.**

* * *

><p>"Ugh." Emma groaned as the shouting match continued. It had been going on for what seemed like ages and though she had been trying to sleep through it initially, she was too awake now to try any further.<p>

Rubbing at her sleep-heavy eyes, Emma moved into a sitting position and only then noticed the pillow that had been propped underneath her head. She had used her cape before, since Regina had taken the bed and there had only been one set of blankets and one pillow. But the cape had mysteriously gone missing and there was now a blanket half-wrapped around her feet. Emma mused Regina had likely woken up first and covered her up with the blanket, but she still didn't understand where the hell her cape had gone.

Not to mention that since it was the only piece of clothing she had that would obscure her hair and features properly, she had no clue how she was able to get to the stables without somebody potentially recognizing her.

Sighing, she cleaned herself up and got dressed. At least, she thought as she rubbed at her temples to alleviate the slight headache she had, the couple next door had finally stopped their arguing.

She was tying up her boots when the door opened and she froze for a second, her eyes wide at the thought that it might be one of the servants working at the tavern.

"Still like to sleep in, I see," Regina remarked coolly, one eyebrow raised as she closed the door behind her.

"Dont," Emma replied a little miffed, "you sound just like my parents right now. I happen to enjoy my nightrest. Nothing wrong with that."

Though she deliberately omitted the fact that it took her half the night to be able to close her eyes in the first place. She studied Regina warily for a moment, unsure whether to bring up their strange conversation from the night before, but chose to remain silent. Instead, her attention was drawn towards the fur cloak draped across one of Regina's arms and her curiosity was piqued even more when she spied Regina's own cloak still draped across the bed from the corner of her eye.

"Went shopping?" Emma remarked smartly, grinning at the unimpressed look shot her way as Regina walked further into the room. Though her eyebrows rose when instead of packing away the new cloak, Regina held it out to her. "For me?" Emma questioned a tinge surprised. Though she still took the cloak from Regina's hands and laid it across her lap to admire it. "But I thought you said you didn't have much money with you either. Unless.." She trailed off and tilted her head at Regina. "Don't tell me you stole it somehow."

Letting out an indignant little huff, Regina walked towards the chair standing next to the bed and started to rummage through one of the bags placed on top of it for something. "Don't be ridiculous dear, besides if I recall correctly you are the one with a delinquent background."

"Right, now that you mention it, I have been itching to rob a store or two," Emma stated sarcastically while rolling her eyes. She placed the cloak on top of her rucksack and finished lacing up her boots before walking over to the table to retrieve her bracers. "Seriously though, I'm assuming the fact my cape went missing has something to do with you acquiring the new cloak."

"Your powers of observation are remarkable."

"Have you made it your day's goal to ridicule me or something?" Emma questioned as she shook her head.

Though secretly she was relieved that they were still able to engage in lighthearted banter like this, even with the impact of the words uttered by Regina the night before still lingering on. The idea that they would never be able to fix the rift between them completely, disheartened her and made her ponder about what would what happen after they completed this trip. She had thought that spending some time together would bring them closer again, but now she wondered if perhaps she got it all wrong. It was as if more she pushed, the more Regina closed herself off, and she felt utterly lost with what to do next.

"The delicate embroidery designs on your cape made it valuable enough to trade against a proper fur cloak for you and some supplies for our journey."

"Now who's the thief? You could've just asked you know?" Emma said, even while she was unable to suppress the smile from curving her lips upwards. "It also seems a bit unnecessary, we might be back in town before nightfall again, and I don't think I need a cloak for one day." She frowned then, as a thought hit her. "How the hell did you make the trade anyway? Your cloak was still here, and I would think even the inhabitants of this town could recognise you, despite the fact that you don't venture away from the castle's grounds much these days."

"Glamour spell," Regina explained simply, without looking up from the bag she was hunched over. "And you might be wrong about being back before nightfall."

"Oh?"

"I listened in on some argument between one of the woodcutters and another man whom I assume was someone they normally sell their wood to; they reside in cabins almost half a day's ride from here. Seeing as neither of us are very familiar with the terrain, it might take most of the day to find their cabins, let alone any proof of these rumored orc-sightings."

"Still think they are just rumors huh?" Emma murmured as she tied the scabbard around her waist.

"I'll admit some of what was said did intrigue me enough to warrant a closer look."

"Well let's hope your Orcish is better than mine then," Emma said as she picked up her new cloak and the rucksack from the floor. She stopped in the middle of the room and turned towards Regina. "Though I actually hope that you're right, and it's just some men getting spooked by a lost wood-troll or something. If they really are Orcs and have wandered this close to the borders, then they can't be up too much good and I'm not looking forward to a possible war."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

"Yeah…" Emma trailed off.

She dwelled briefly on how truly ill-prepared the Kingdom really would be in case of an imminent war and her stomach turned a little with the thought. She was under no illusions that wars in these type of lands wouldn't turn out to be messy affairs. Even with magic at one's disposal. Her eyes settled on Regina's form and she watched as the other woman finished tying up her bag. Emma contemplated about asking for more magic lessons, despite not being very fond of them. Books just weren't the same and it wasn't as if she had bothered much with them these past couple of months.

"Ready to go?" Regina asked and Emma blinked for a second, before focusing her attention on Regina.

Emma nodded as she clipped the cloak around her shoulders and tugged the hood over her head. Slinging the rucksack across one of her shoulders she looked over at Regina making her way to the door. She had no real idea about what possessed her, but she reached out and laid a hand on Regina's shoulder without giving it much thought.

"Thank you for finding the cloak for me."

"Of course," came the cold and detached reply and Emma watched a little stunned as Regina built up walls in front of her.

She dipped her chin and prayed that the hood had been enough to hide the pang of hurt she had felt with Regina's words as her hand slipped off the shoulder, before following after the other woman down the stairs.

**-x-x-x-**


	5. Chapter 5

**5.**

* * *

><p>"What do you think?"<p>

"Those are cart tracks," Regina stated. She hunched down and peered into the direction the tracks originated from. "A lot of cart tracks in fact," she added after scanning the beaten trail both ways.

Bushes had been flattened to the ground; some of them completely trampled without care, and she was able to spot various branches from the nearby trees having been chopped away to clear a path. Whomever had passed through here had taken great care not to cross any of the main roads leading towards the mountains and the Northern Kingdoms.

"War-party?" Emma questioned.

Regina noticed her looking around warily, as if expecting something to leap from the underbrush at any moment and she felt a few shivers run past her spine as she stood back up. Something felt off. Despite knowing that no marauding band of orcs would take carts along with them, the fact that a large group had passed through these woods while attempting to stay hidden, wasn't sitting well with her.

"I don't think so, no. It might not even be Orcs, but there are people moving through these woods for some reason. And it is highly suspicious that they made their own path, instead of using the normal roads."

She noticed Emma looking over to the tree to which they had tied their horses. "Perhaps we should warn the garrison at Holbeck," Emma suggested. One of her hands was resting on the hilt of the sword which sat in the scabbard tied around her waist and her eyes continued to flick back and forward across the treeline. "Just in case?"

Regina hummed and glanced up at the sky; taking note of the position of the sun and mentally calculated how much daylight remained. "I don't think we will be able to make it back to Holbeck before nightfall. We should make the most of the light which is left and follow the trail back towards where it came from. We might be able to find some remains of a camp where they stopped during the night. Or possibly some other clues to reveal what we are dealing with."

"Why not follow the tracks the other way? I don't see any animal-prints here, so I'm guessing the carts are handdrawn, which means they couldn't have gotten that far."

"If there's anything I have learned from my days of ruling as a Queen, it was to never underestimate an opponent. Even with magic at one's disposal, there's not much to be done when one walks into a trap, dear." She wiped some dirt away from her pants and walked over to where Alastor was grazing. "Though it is most curious that they haven't made a move yet. They will be moving past our borders within the next day. If they continue to follow this same trail northbound, it might be their aim is another Kingdom instead."

"Right." Emma said while unhitching the horses' from the tree. "You would think if they were looking to loot something, they would've targeted Sanlow instead. Since it is the town closest to the main trade-routes. We would've heard something about it by now if they had." She mumbled something under her breath that Regina couldn't quite understand before leading Pyrois towards the trail. "I agree with your plan though. It might be better if we know more before attempting to convince any of the garrisons about someone possibly encroaching on the Kingdom's borders."

Nodding, Regina mounted Alastor and followed closely after Emma as they slowly rode across the trail. She checked the path they were travelling on for anything out of the ordinary, but mostly kept her eyes on the trees and underbrush lining the other side of the trail. Something made her think they were being watched, but she hadn't been able to actually see or hear anything.

She was wondering whether Emma had picked up anything odd herself, but the strange looks Emma had thrown her way every now and then had stopped her from speaking up. Every time Regina had caught her eyes, she had quickly averted them away again.

But it was the silence that bothered her most of all. It was uncharacteristic behavior from someone who was usually talkative enough to warrant a warning to stop or have a silencing-spell be cast on her for the remainder of the day. She couldn't help thinking what happened at night in the tavern room had contributed to Emma's current dejected mood. The few times Regina thought she seemed poised to say something, Emma ended up looking away again and Regina felt troubled, as if she was back on the Castle's balcony all those weeks ago.

She had no idea how long they had been travelling when she sensed it again. Someone was watching them. She was certain now, and the feeling was a lot stronger than before. She thought about a way to warn Emma without giving away her suspicions to whoever was watching them, when she saw Emma dismounting in a hurry.

"Something wrong?" She asked, careful about maintaining eye-contact with Emma instead of looking around her.

"I thought Pyrois had thrown a shoe, but…" Emma frowned, but she kept darting her eyes to the side of the trail and Regina understood she had noticed that something was off as well.

She dismounted and took careful measured steps as she walked over to where Emma was sitting on her haunches. Letting go of Alastors reins, she made sure the horse was positioned in such a way it would mostly shield them away from prying eyes, while she hunched down.

"But?" She questioned, while she pretended to inspect one of Pyrois' hooves.

"Looks like they are all still accounted for. Maybe she stepped into something sharp?" It was all said in a casual tone, but she caught the alarm in Emma's eyes, confirming that she was also aware they had company. "You've sensed them too, right?" Emma murmured softly while she turned over another of the mare's hooves.

"Yes," Regina whispered simply in reply.

"I can't really find anything, but perhaps we should return back to town just in case," Emma spoke up. She glanced sideways again, while ducking her head. "Two or three in the bushes, and there's another two up in the trees."

There was the tingling sensation of magic pulsing just below her skin as Regina prepared herself for the upcoming confrontation. It had been a while since she had fought something, or someone, with magic after all and she couldn't quite suppress the wicked grin that slowly creeped up along her lips.

"I suppose I'll just take the ones on the ground," Emma whispered again, a spark of mirth in her eyes as her hand flew to her sword. "Far more easier for me to reach." Then without waiting for any confirmation she shot forward in a sprint towards the tree-line.

Mentally cursing Emma for her usual impatience and rashness, Regina made a quick half circle with her hands and sent a shockwave to the branches and leaves obscuring her view. The trees shook with the force of the spell she had used and she caught a glimpse of something brown and grey hiding in one of the treetops. Before it was able to get away, she used another spell on one of the nearby branches and sent it spiralling towards the unknown assailant.

The plant wrapped itself around the creature, sending it down to dangle from one of the trees and Regina watched on with a smirk. In the background she could hear someone impacting with something solid and letting out a soft groan. It was followed by primitive sounding grunting and sword-clashes, and a quick inspection of the captured prey proved their uninvited guests were indeed Orcs.

Frowning at the realization, Regina almost missed the movement from the corner of her eye. Though she was quick enough to send another branch the same way, and she let out a little chuckle when the Orc caught by the branch let out protesting yelps as it was dragged backwards by its legs. She looked on amused when he managed to free one of his hands and swung around a short sword in an attempt to hack away at the branch.

"Oh truly now?" She spoke up haughtily, giving the Orc an unimpressed look.

Both of her captives were now shouting things in Orcish that she couldn't understand and she decided to just ignore them for now. With a simple flick of her wrist the sword flew away from the Orc's hands and landed somewhere in the dirt behind him. She used a little more magic to make the branch wrap itself completely around the Orc's body and deposited him next to her first captive.

"I hate to say I told you so but…" Emma's voice came from somewhere behind her and Regina rolled her eyes in response. She threw a quick glance Emma's way to find one Orc sprawled unconscious next to a tree and another pinned against the same tree, sword pressed against his throat.

"Then perhaps you shouldn't? But it would indeed seem that we're dealing with Orcs trespassing upon human lands." Though with what she knew of them, they were usually equipped with far better weaponry and armor and it gave her pause as she inspected both of the immobilized Orcs on the other side of the path.

"Can't you, I don't know, magically tie these clowns up as well?" Emma questioned, sounding a bit irritated. "My hand is beginning to cramp and we wouldn't want him to get an extra hole to breathe through by accident and all."

"Perhaps if you had actually bothered to read any of the books I gave you, you wouldn't need my assistance with this now."

She didn't bother to hide her annoyance with Emma's continued aversion about reading up on all things magical. They had talked about it a few times, and Emma had even admitted not being comfortable with her magical abilities. She had thought that just giving her the books instead of attempting to teach her would help with the situation, but Emma had been as stubborn as ever.

"I'll have you know I used magic to send sleeping beauty into a head-on collision with this tree over here." Emma's eyes flicked to lock with her own for a moment and there was something indignant about the expression on her face. "I have paid _some_ attention to the things you've been trying to teach me, you know?"

Something was shouted by one of the Orcs restrained with branches wrapped around their bodies and Regina focused her attention back on the situation at hand. She conjured up a few more branches and made them stretch out to lift up the remaining two Orcs. A few more things were yelled her way, and the Orc Emma had disarmed was looking furious. His orange eyes were practically glowing as he attempted to wrench his body away from the plant's grasp, to no avail.

"Can you understand anything they're saying?"

"No, actually. However judging from the intonation, I can only assume he isn't too happy with the situation."

"Well I wouldn't be either in his position," Emma said. She sheathed her sword and combed one of her hands through her hair. "Strange thing is, I had the feeling that they weren't putting up much of a fight on purpose. I figured it was because we had caught them off guard, but…" Emma's eyes settled on the captive Orcs and she looked at them pensively. "Well, I don't know much about these guys, so I might be wrong. It certainly doesn't compare to training at the Castle or rounding up a few bandits."

"You might be onto something however," Regina said thoughtfully. She walked over to where the horses were standing and led them towards a tree on the opposite side of the trail. They both seemed a bit skittish already from the action that had taken place and she didn't want to risk them getting spooked by something the Orcs said or did.

"Meaning what exactly?" Emma asked as they both tied down the horses next to each other.

"They were observing us for quite some time. But they didn't seem too keen on attacking us. I assume there is a reason behind all of this but I haven't figured it out yet."

"Why were they observing us though?"

"Maybe we should ask them," Regina responded with a nod towards the captured Orcs.

"Like I said before, my Orcish is a little rusty," Emma remarked dryly. "Unless you happen to have a universal translator packed away somewhere, I don't see how we're going to get a word out of them."

"I have no idea what you just said, but Orcs aren't savages and some of them do happen to speak Common."

She heard some groaning and walked towards the group of the tied up Orcs. The one that had been knocked unconscious was coming to and the others seemed to be impatiently shouting to him. It piqued her interest right away, since he was the only one that was clad in rags instead of leather armor. A thick scar ran across his forehead, starting next to one of his ears and disappearing into his hairline. Eyes that were a mixtures of yellow and orange peered up owlishly at her as she walked up to him. Around his neck Regina noted a necklace made out of strange colored stones, the kind of which none of the other Orcs were wearing.

He mumbled something she didn't understand and looked towards his companions, a frown overtaking his features as his eyes settled back at her.

"Undo," he asked simply. The word was spoken with a thick accent and his voice was rough and gravelly as he repeated himself.

"You're kidding me right?" Emma muttered as she placed her arms akimbo. "We're not going to let you go until you explain what the hell you are doing in our lands and this close to our borders."

Instead of replying, he shook his head and asked something in Orcish.

"We don't speak your language," Regina replied evenly, as she paced around. She toyed with the clasp of her cloak and wrapped it a little closer around her body. Already it was getting colder. Night would soon set in and they were running out of time. She much preferred to get to the bottom of the situation and find a way to deal with these Orcs instead of being forced to spend the entire night babysitting them.

"We move," the Orc spoke up again as he shifted his body against the branch tying him down.

She hadn't noticed up until now, but the Orc that had been attempting to communicate with them seemed to be older than the other three. There were wrinkles near his eyes and he was a lot less muscular than the ones accompanying him. She surmised he had to be some sort of leader to them, or at least someone the other Orcs were looking up to.

"Move where?" Emma asked. Regina caught the glance directed her way and understood that Emma was just as confused as she was herself about the Orcs odd words.

"Away," he said, and Regina wasn't able to shake the feeling that there was something strangely desperate about the way he spoke. "We move away, now."

"What's your name?" Regina questioned.

He frowned and stared at her for a long moment and she wondered if he understood the question at all. His shoulders rotated around as he attempted to lift himself up, but she maintained her strong hold on all of the Orcs with her magic, not wanting to take any chances just yet.

"Kharzog," he finally grunted out, with a heavy emphasis on the last part of his name.

"Why are you travelling this far North? And why so much secrecy?"

"We move," he repeated, and his lips formed around some other words but he seemed to hesitate before conversing with one of the other Orcs. "The tribe moves."

"We already know that," Emma interjected, frustration dripping from her every word. "What we don't know is why you are moving, and where for that matter."

"He did mention his tribe just now," Regina said as she exchanged a quick reassuring look with Emma. She also preferred going back to the castle to report what had transpired, and see their son again as well. But years of living in limbo had given her the patience she didn't have prior to casting the curse, and she dropped down to properly look Kharzog in the eyes while she spoke to him. "I assume that's why you brought carts?" She asked, without expecting an answer. Her mind whirred with the pieces of information they had so far and how they would all fit together. "Why you are ill-equipped for any kind of battle."

"Not warriors," Kharzog spoke up. "We keep watch."

"Well that explains some of it," Emma said as she leaned against one of the nearby trees."But you were still wielding weapons and you're also still passing through these lands without permission."

"Keep the tribe safe. Most our warriors are...gone," Kharzog said, after a few long seconds of pausing mid-sentence. He dipped his head towards the branch which was wrapped around his body before looking up at her again. "Undo."

"I don't think so."

"Perhaps we should." She ignored Emma's incredulous expression and continued, "I see no problem with freeing him up while keeping the others tied for now. I know you don't trust them, but I've dealt with experienced Orc warriors in the past Emma, and these barely seemed to know how to lift a weapon."

Emma looked as if wanting to protest, but eventually she just pursed her lips and muttered out a soft unconvincing, 'fine', before reclining against the tree. One of her hands settled on the hilt of her sword and Regina rolled her eyes heavenwards. She wasn't going to waste any energy on pointing out to Emma that she did have magic to her disposal and she had dealt with far greater threats than a single unarmed Orc.

Kharzog stood up slowly as the plant tying him fell away and he nodded at her, before saying something in Orcish at the three other Orcs remaining tied and struggling against their bonds.

"What happened?" She asked, while wishing she could understand some of the Orcish which was being spoken. "You said your warriors are gone. Did you have some sort of war between tribes and you were forced out of your lands?"

"No," he replied simply. He bent down to grab something from the dirty leaf covered ground and Regina eyed him warily. Magic hummed along her fingertips and a fireball would just be a split-second away if she needed one. But to her surprise he grabbed one of the small snapped branches and started wiping at the earth to create an evened out surface.

"We were here," Kharzog explained. He made a small circle and then traced the stick upwards. "We move here. North. Near the sea, birth grounds from ancestors." He stopped then and looked towards the path they had travelled from. "Safe," he said, in a tone that seemed almost fragile, especially for an Orc that towered over her.

"Safe from what?" Emma questioned. Her hand still lingered near her sword, but Regina noted her posture was far more relaxed than it had been before.

"Zhavarr Ochem."

"Is that a name of a tribe?"

"I don't think it is," she answered Emma's question. The first name sounded familiar to her but she couldn't place it. She had read a few books about Lizard men, Orcs and Ogres before, especially the tribal-culture, but most of that had been a long time ago. They had been Rumple's books and because he died before they all went back, she assumed they would have been lost forever now. But she thought that she had come across the name Zhavarr before and she wondered if it might've been a Orcish deity which was worshipped.

Kharzog shook his head and rambled in Orcish. He made strange frantic hand-gestures and wiped away part of the map he had drawn while glancing towards the trail, as if he was afraid of something.

"We do not understand," Regina attempted to get his attention. But he shook his head, his eyes almost glowing as he took a step forward. She stood her ground, but his presence so close to her still unnerved her. A vein was throbbing visibly on his forehead and there was a glimmer in his eyes that reminded her of the desperation she had once seen in some of the people's eyes when she had still been Queen.

"What does Zhavarr Ochem mean?"

"Death."

**-x-x-x-**


	6. Chapter 6

**6.**

* * *

><p>"We should make camp here."<p>

"We should, shouldn't we?" Emma mumbled. She untied the rucksack from Pyrois' back and threw it down without looking where it landed; not bothering to hide her aggravation. She placed her bedroll on the ground and looked around for some wood they would be able to use for a campfire. There was barely any daylight left and she wasn't looking forward to searching for firewood in the darkness, in addition to the irritation she was already feeling.

"Something on your mind, dear?"

She looked up to find Regina quirk an eyebrow at her, as if she couldn't understand at all why Emma was in a bad mood. "Really Regina?!" Emma hissed out. "I'm not going to bother explaining this crap again, while you damn well know what's on my mind. So let's just leave it until tomorrow, okay? I'm hungry and tired and not in the mood for another lengthy discussion."

"I thought that was resolved," Regina said on a tone clearly meant to be placating and crossed her arms across her chest.

"No, _you_ were the one who deemed it resolved, I didn't exactly have a say in it, now did I?" When it looked like Regina was going to argue the point again, Emma shook her head, her hands clenching to fists at her sides. "I'm going to find us some firewood."

She stalked off into the woods, not bothering to look back to find out why Regina was calling out her name still.

* * *

><p>They had barely left the main road before the first drops fell down and Emma cursed under her breath, making Pyrois pick up her pace. She tugged at the hood of her cloak and pulled it down as far as possible while still being able to see her surroundings, though she wasn't under any illusions that it would help protect her against the impending downpour.<p>

The weather had started deteriorating rapidly after they had woken up, and they hadn't been able to make much progress before they were forced to find some shelter and wait out the coming storm.

She tilted her head up to glance at the sky, while attempting to keep Pyrois on the right track towards the mountainside. Dark clouds were rolling out over them and in the distance she could hear the first sounds of thunder. She flinched as a lightning bolt cleaved across the sky and mentally prayed that they would find an abandoned cabin or cave in time before the storm would reach them. She had never been fond of lightning storms and preferred to be safely indoors somewhere whenever one passed over.

Regina was riding just ahead of her and Emma had caught a few of the quick looks directed towards her, but she hadn't said more than two words since they cleared out their campsite and Emma had no idea how to break the silence. Inside she was still fuming. The few hours she had actually managed to sleep had done next to nothing for her mood. Though she knew damned well that nothing would be resolved by remaining silent and not talking about the thing which was bothering her so much.

The wind was picking up and Emma had to actually shield her eyes to prevent them from tearing up. She had also noticed the terrain they were travelling had changed from a hard packed forest-floor to rock-riddled muddy ground. There were so many rocks and changes in elevation that she had to slow down Pyrois considerably. She considered stopping and leading Pyrois towards the mountains on foot by her reins, and was relieved when Regina apparently had the same idea. She was slowing down at first and then stopping completely to dismount when they reached large boulders blocking their path.

"We should move around these, I believe I saw a rocky outcropping further up ahead, which seemed large enough for us to shelter under while the storm passes."

"Of course," Emma muttered in an irritated tone. She tugged at the hood so it wasn't obscuring her view, and walked past Regina.

"Are you not going to explain what it is that has you in such a foul mood?"

She tightened her hold on Pyrois' reins until it almost hurt as she turned around rapidly to face Regina. "You really don't get it do you?" She said with a raised voice. Regina merely returned her murderous glare with an expression of utmost annoyance and Emma could feel her anger building to a boiling point.

Regina cocked her head. "The only thing I apparently get, is that you've been having a tantrum since yesterday for no apparent reason."

"Are you serious right now?" Emma exclaimed vehemently. She continued moving around the boulders as the rain now fell in a curtain of thick drops and started to obscure their view. "I know you ruled for some time as a Queen in the past, but that doesn't give you the fucking right to order me around as if I'm one of your subjects. But that's exactly what you've been doing. We shouldn't even be here in the first place, Regina. We should go back to Holbeck while we still can and notify the garrison there."

"Even if they were to believe us, it would take a long time for them to mobilise enough people to investigate this."

"Investigate what?!" Emma nearly shouted as she threw one of her hands up in the air. She spied the ledge Regina had mentioned, looming up ahead of them, but she was too infuriated to feel any joy over the discovery. "Some mythical Orc deity that presumably destroyed their lands or whatever? You've got to be joking. For someone who was so quick to dismiss the mere idea of Orcs wandering across Human lands, you sure are ready to believe the ramblings of a madman."

"You do not understand the mere implications of any Orc tribe being forcefully removed from their lands. They've withstood countless invasions by outside forces and they've routed repeated attacks by Ogre warbands in the past. They would never leave behind their lands unless there was a good reason."

As they walked around a fallen tree, Regina's eyes caught her own for a second and Emma saw her own anger and frustration reflected back at her.

"The orc we talked to is a Sage I believe, and he mentioned a single entity as being responsible for his tribe's demise. I know a great deal more about these lands and of the beings which live within them than you do, Emma, and what we have witnessed up until now worries me enough to investigate it before it does more damage."

"You still set a bunch of Orcs free and left them to wander around our lands unhindered, and without anyone knowing anything about them. That decision wasn't yours to make," Emma hissed out. "For all we know they could still decide to plunder some town further up north."

They reached the large outcrop jutting out of the mountainside just then, and although she could hear Regina saying something behind her, Emma chose to ignore it. The thought of a group of Orcs razing a town while they could've prevented it was making her blood boil. She maintained the opinion that it hadn't been Regina's call to make, but she hadn't even been able to get a word in edgewise before Regina had set them free.

She rounded a small bend to check how far the rocky outcrop stretched out, and was surprised to come across a large cave-opening right in front of her. She threw a quick glance across her shoulders and bit her lip upon noticing Regina following closely behind her. There was no doubt in her mind that their discussion wasn't over yet, but she figured a break from it would help the both of them make more sense of things. Tying down Pyrois to a small rock, she drew her sword and ventured into the caves. Though it looked abandoned, she wasn't taking the risk of stumbling onto something that had made the cave its nest. But to her great relief it didn't extend very far into the mountain, though it seemed large enough at least for them to set up a camp and wait out the storm.

"Good find," Regina's voice rang out from somewhere behind her and Emma instantly tensed up in response. She turned around after sheathing her sword and watched warily as Regina put a few of the bags on the ground and removed her cloak.

"Should keep us dry enough," she finally said after a few more seconds had ticked away.

She turned and faced away from Regina again, while unclipping her own cloak. Her bedroll was still tied to Pyrois but she didn't feel like walking past Regina to fetch it so she stayed put and thought of something to say to defuse the tension that still hung between them.

"Are you ever going to answer my question?"

"What question? Because I don't recall you asking me anything. In fact, I would say this is the first time in the last day or so that you've actually asked me anything, instead of merely deciding things for me," Emma stated bitterly.

"Then let me repeat myself," Regina spoke up, and Emma's eyes widened in surprise when a hand grasped her arm and forcefully spun her around. "I want to know what the hell your real issue is with me, Emma! Because it's not just this. You've been withdrawn most of this journey and I resent the fact that you feel the need to take your frustrations out on me."

"_I_ have been withdrawn?!" Emma spat out as she wrenched her arm loose and practically snarled at Regina. "You have no fucking right to even mention that to my face after all the bullshit you've pulled these past few months."

"I have no idea what you're…"

"Stop lying to me!" Emma hissed. When Regina shook her head dismissively and attempted to turn around, she grabbed one of her arms and harshly threw her against the cave-wall. Without waiting for her to recover, Emma collected her wrists and locked them together above Regina's head. "How much more of this crap do you expect me to take? You've been avoiding me for months now."

"Let go of me!" Regina yelled out furiously. Her eyes were dark and full of anger as she struggled to free her wrists. But Emma refused to let go and even tightened her hold on them.

"No. Fuck you, Regina. Just…" She gnashed her teeth and stared into Regina's eyes, unable to keep a lid on all the frustration she had been bottling up. "Did I really screw things up so badly by kissing you that day? Is that the reason you've been freezing me out?"

"I suggest you to let go of me right now, Emma," Regina hissed. "Do not force me to use magic on you."

"I'm not going to let you go!" Emma fired back, as she leaned in until there were mere inches between their faces. "Not until you fucking tell me why…" Emma's eyes widened when she sensed the magic build up, and she knew that any moment now she would find herself sailing backwards across the cave. Rage overtook her completely when she noticed the defiant look on Regina's face. Growling, Emma used her free hand to clasp Regina's chin and crashed their mouths together.

She could feel Regina freezing up for a second, before she started to struggle to get away from the angry bruising kisses, but Emma wouldn't let her. All the anger and frustration, all the ways in which Regina had hurt her ever since they had first kissed during Emma's birthday utterly consumed her, and she poured it all into desperate aching kisses. The moment Regina opened her mouth the tiniest bit, Emma pushed her tongue inside and she groaned at the heady feeling washing over her. She finally let go of Regina's wrists and used the newly freed hand to fuse their mouths together again and again. Regina let out a soft moan that she almost didn't pick up on and instead of pushing Emma away, her hands repeatedly skated across Emma's shoulders, as if she was torn with indecision.

Emma didn't notice how long they stood like that, pressed up against the wall as she kissed Regina senseless. But when she broke away from Regina's lips to nip at them, and her hand started to wander downwards across Regina's chest, she was suddenly shoved backwards.

Dark glittering eyes settled on her and Emma swallowed as her heart clattered away in her chest. Regina was panting, the tips of her fingers tracing her lips as she stared at Emma in shock.

Emma dipped her chin to her chest and cursed herself for losing all sense of control. But there had always been something about Regina that just got right underneath her skin. She hadn't been able to shake off Regina's cold responses to any questions she asked. Or the way she had completely ignored Emma's presence when they were in the same room at the Castle. It felt like someone had tightened a band across her heart, the pain inside something she didn't know how to deal with.

Their interactions over these past few days of travelling had just been oil on already roaring fire, until everything she had been keeping inside had slipped away from her in an emotional explosion.

But the pain was still there. The clenching feeling around her heart when she thought of the words Regina had spoken to her. That they couldn't fix this.

And she just had to make things even worse.

"I shouldn't have done that," Emma whispered. Her tone was subdued, apologetic even, though she couldn't help the way her eyes were being drawn towards Regina's lips. "Or at least not while we were in the middle of fighting about something."

There was a sharp exhale of breath and then Regina launched herself away from the wall and turned to face the cave-opening. "We both screwed up badly," Regina said, and Emma frowned, not understanding what Regina was getting at.

"What do you mean?"

"You said that you felt as if you had screwed up badly on your birthday, but what happened was likely just as much my fault as it was yours. I shouldn't have approached you at that time."

It felt like someone had stabbed her, and a few tears welled up in her eyes as Emma thought of that day. "You know what?" She murmured, unable to suppress the hitch in her voice as she spoke. "I'm glad you approached me. It meant a lot to me and I refuse to have you feeling guilty for that." When only silence greeted her, Emma took a careful step towards Regina. "You can't tell me all this doesn't mean anything to you. You kissed me back both times Regina, so you can't tell me you don't feel this too."

"I didn't push you away on the balcony because you were emotionally vulnerable at the time," Regina replied. Her tone was even, but still sounded suspiciously fragile.

"So you..what? You let me kiss you because you pitied me or something?" Emma exclaimed while attempting to tamp down on her anger. "That's just crap Regina that's just.." She clenched her jaw and walked over to Regina to face her. "That wasn't the way it felt to me."

Regina's eyes were wide and slightly misted over as they locked with Emma's and her lips were still visibly swollen by the kisses they had shared moments before. Emma hesitated for only a second, but then she reached out with her hands and framed Regina's face between them. A part of her expected Regina to pull away, but all she did was stare at Emma for a long moment before one of her hands rose to settle across Emma's own.

"Emma…" She murmured breathlessly and Emma's stomach turned into knots as she gazed into Regina's eyes.

Her eyes followed the tips of her fingers as they traced across Regina's cheekbone and jaw, before diverting towards her lips. She moved her fingers away and pressed their lips together for a soft kiss before letting her hands fall away and taking a step back from Regina again.

"That was the way it felt to me," Emma spoke up softly. She licked her lips slowly and was pleased to notice Regina's eyes followed her tongue's movements.

"You need to stop doing that," Regina said with a hoarse voice. "I might be attracted to you but I will not let it interfere with the true goal of our journey, Emma. There might be a lot at stake here."

"Are you saying that all that's playing between us is just lust?" Emma questioned incredulously. She refused to believe the way Regina had looked at her, the way something soft and gentle had clearly shone in her eyes moments before, meant nothing. Instead of answering her, Regina averted her eyes and remained silent and Emma swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat.

It reminded her too much of their first kiss. The way Regina had built up walls in front of her now, was much like she had done on that day. But she swore she had seen something in Regina's eyes during the brief discussion they had had on the balcony. She had felt something in the way Regina had placed a hand on her arm and how her other hand had cupped Emma's face. There had been something deeply comforting about the gesture. And she had felt something when Regina had murmured soothing words. The longer she had stared into Regina's eyes, the more obvious it had seemed to her. She had thought for it to be mutual, these feelings, the love she felt in that moment. She had thought for it to be mutual enough to lean in and kiss Regina.

She listened to the rain falling, the soft taps as it clattered against the trees and mountainside in a steady downpour. It soothed her frayed nerves enough for her to settle her eyes back on Regina's form again and she sighed softly.

"Why did you go after me?"

"I'm not sure what you mean," Regina responded carefully. She had wrapped her arms around herself and gone back to staring at the curtain of rain falling down beyond the cave-opening.

"At the ball. No one else seemed to notice anything. But you did."

She could clearly see the sparks of recognition forming in Regina's eyes as the seconds ticked away.

"I just want a little honesty, okay?" Emma clarified as she wrung her hands. "I felt like shit that day, but I smiled through it all. I put on a mask, and no one noticed when I disappeared."

"Emma…"

Regina was clearly struggling with something and it took a lot of Emma's willpower to not take a few steps forward and kiss her again. "Why did you go after me?"

"Because I've known you long enough to…" Regina's voice wavered and she closed her eyes briefly before continuing. "I can tell when you're upset about something. And it was the way you looked, Emma; as if you were carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders."

Emma opened her mouth to respond, but she promptly closed it again. She hadn't realized she had been that obvious. Or perhaps just that obvious to Regina. She glanced towards the other woman only to find her walking towards the entrance of the cave.

"Where are you going?"

"Out."

"Are you insane?!" Emma exclaimed incredulously, "there's a storm going on out there."

Regina merely turned her head and flashed her a smile that barely touched her lips. "I know," she murmured before disappearing from sight.

**-x-x-x-**


	7. Chapter 7

**7.**

* * *

><p>"Why Stonegate?" Emma asked and Regina glanced across her shoulder to look at her. "I mean..I thought you said that the highest point of the mountain was south from here."<p>

"You didn't think to ask this question before we entered the mountain pass?"

"It's not like you were in much of a talkative mood."

"And you were?" Regina replied.

Emma had said barely two words since she had returned to the caves the day before, and Regina hadn't felt the need to press the matter further. Though she had expected Emma to bother her again once they made camp for the following night. But instead, she had made vague excuses about hunting for some game and hadn't returned until hours after the sun had already gone down. Regina had made no remarks about Emma sitting down at the campfire empty handed, since she had sensed Emma hadn't strayed that far away and had just wanted some time and space to brood somewhere.

"I was thinking," Emma said. "And I didn't want something I said to turn into another argument."

Regina sighed and dismounted from Alastor. She ignored the inquisitive raise of Emma's eyebrows and led the horse towards the small river flowing through the middle of the pass, not too far away from the muddy road they had been travelling on.

The tone Emma had used was relatively neutral, but Regina knew for certain that their encounter in the cave was just as much on the forefront of Emma's mind as it was on her own. She didn't want to think of the words Emma had used, the desperation in her kisses, and Regina swallowed harshly as the memories surfaced without her consent. The feeling of fingers settling into the nape of her neck. The soft drawn out moan as Emma's other hand slipped along her jaw and deepened their kisses.

It felt as if now, more than ever, this entire trip was a mistake.

But as she watched Emma lead Pyrois to the water to drink, from the corners of her eyes, she also knew that now more than ever, they couldn't go back.

"It would take us a considerably larger amount of time to round the mountain-range. Stonegate is relatively close to one of the paths that leads up one of the slopes. The town actually doubles as a trading-hub alongside the mining they do nearby. It would be wise to pick up some more supplies there and perhaps question any traders there if they've heard about any strange occurrences from the south."

She could sense Emma studying her for a moment, before there was the sound of her riffling through one of the packs strapped to Pyrois' back. "Want something?" Emma asked, and Regina's eyes found the small loaf of bread she was holding up.

"No," Regina declined the offer. "I'm not all that hungry yet." There were a few pastries left in one of her own bags and she much prefered those compared to the sweetened bread she had bought in Holbeck.

"Right," Emma muttered, before tearing the loaf in two and taking a small bite from the larger chunk. "Do you think we'll find anything out?" Emma asked.

She sat down one of the small rocks near the riverbed, and Regina briefly considered sitting down herself, but then decided against it. They would spend most of what remained of the way in the saddle and she enjoyed being able to stretch her legs for a few minutes.

"I don't know," Regina murmured honestly. She hadn't wanted to think much of what they might find. Or even if they would find anything at all.

They would be able to see a lot of the lands stretching out towards the south and the east from the mountain-range which they were going to ascend. But it was also a remote possibility at best that they could see anything significant that way. She had been pondering about what to do if they couldn't determine what was going on. Whether to make the journey towards the Orc lands. Which would take them an additional 10 days or more, since it would be completely foreign territory to her. But discussing that option with Emma while they were both still reeling from their fight the day before didn't seem like a very feasible idea to her.

"I know you likely still don't agree with my decision to travel onwards for a few more days, but I would never have made the call if I didn't think there was a very good cause for it, Emma." She didn't look at Emma while she spoke, but she knew that if she would tilt her head just a tinge to the side, she would find Emma's hazel eyes staring straight at her.

"Maybe I don't," Emma replied softly. "But I have been thinking about all this okay? And you were.." She trailed off, and this time Regina couldn't stop herself from glancing over at Emma. There was a small bit of bread remaining, pinched between two of Emma's fingers, but she seemed lost in thought and merely content staring at it for a moment before her head dipped up and she flashed a quick smile Regina's way. "You were right yesterday when you implied I didn't know much about these lands."

"Em.."

"No," Emma interrupted her immediately. "You were right. I don't. I wouldn't even know where to start with guessing about what could be behind at least one tribe of Orcs running scared enough to travel for weeks on end." She chuckled and grinned as she popped the last morsel of bread into her mouth. "You know on my first trip through these lands, I came across an Ogre, and I tried to shoot at it with my gun."

"Are you going to tell me how this story ends?"

"With me almost ending up as its lunch?" Emma replied. There was a faraway look in her eyes as she stared up at one of the mountain-ranges which seemingly surrounded them from all sides. "My mother ended up saving my sorry ass by killing it with an arrow. Sometimes it still feels like I'm there instead of here though. Because I still misinterpret so many things that go on at the court, and I'm…" She broke off suddenly and blinked. "Sorry, just ruminating I suppose. I guess at the very least this extended road trip of ours gives me some reprieve from that."

"We could take Henry and visit one of the towns near the coast, when we get back," Regina suggested before she could think better of it.

Certainly the picture it put in her head, of spending more time together, even with their son accompanying them, was making her think too much of things that could never be. It was why she had withdrawn in the caves. Stopped Emma from kissing her again. Because every kiss had stolen something from her, had caused more cracks in her facades, and it made her feel too exposed. Her heart had stuttered in her chest, entranced by the way Emma had stared at her. All fire and naked desire, and it had made Regina stop Emma from kissing her again.

Because it had absolutely terrified her.

As much as Emma's ability to see right through her had terrified her enough to deflect Emma's inquiries and even let it escalate into a verbal fight. Though she had never expected Emma to respond the way she had. She had certainly never expected the words Emma had uttered afterwards. And she couldn't figure out why she had admitted to the real reason she had gone after Emma on her birthday. But when she thought about it more, it was because the haunted look in Emma's eyes as she had ran off towards the balcony, had reminded her too much of herself. She had sought Emma out almost instinctively, driven by a need to talk to her, to provide a measure of comfort. She had never thought it to backfire the way it had.

"I would like that actually. The three of us together. Any excuse really to get away from that ants nest called a Castle."

Their eyes locked for a moment, and Regina froze. She opened her mouth to say something, but the intensity in Emma's eyes shocked her into silence. Swallowing around the lump in her throat she grabbed Alastor's reins and led her back to the dirt road.

"We should move on."

"Yeah, guess we should. Would be nice to reach the town and do some shopping before the stores close."

They mounted their horses again, though she let Emma take the lead this time around; feeling more at ease with the thought of not having her every action scrutinised.

"Ever been to Stonegate before?"

"I haven't actually," Regina replied. She tugged at her cloak as she felt some of the chilly winds attempting to permeate her clothes. The sun was slowly disappearing behind one of the higher mountain peaks and everything was cooling down rapidly as a result. "I've met a few…" She paused and pursed her lips, "a few people from these lands. But I never actually had much of a reason to visit these territories. When I was Queen I traded mostly with the kingdoms in the Northern lands. It was an easy way to keep tabs on the other royals. Stonegate and much of the other towns and cities to the east of here aren't ruled by any Kings or Queens and I couldn't find much value in just a few lucrative trades."

"So you actually have no real knowledge about the town we're heading towards? That's just fantastic," Emma groused while shaking her head. "It could have been infiltrated by flying spaghetti monsters who sacrifice virgins as a pastime for all we know."

"I suppose we'll find out in a few hours from now."

Emma snorted and Regina arched an eyebrow at the strange response.

"You have no idea what I just said, do you?" Emma inquired, the twinkle in her eyes giving away her bemusement. "Never mind," she mumbled softly. "At least we should both be able to walk around with our hoods down in Stonegate. I doubt anyone would recognise us."

"Some of the traders might," Regina said. Though she did realize the chances would be slim to none. The trade routes leading towards Sanlow and some of the other border towns were still relatively new. It had taken them the better part of the first year of their return to restore the Kingdom back to some of it's former glory, and the trade routes were something that hadn't been high on the list of priorities.

"Well the ones we've met, didn't seem to at least." Emma shrugged. "Though it reminds me of something I had been meaning to ask you. Because I noticed both of them were travelling along with an armed escort and it made me wonder just how much of a problem groups of bandits pose outside our borders."

"I would wager it's mostly a precaution. Their escorts were hired mercenaries. They don't tend to charge too much at this moment, since there aren't any wars going on. There haven't been many reports of robberies since they've started to escort the traders, and it also helps prevent towns close to the trade routes from spreading their patrols too thin."

When she finished talking she found Emma smiling broadly at her and it completely mystified her.

"What?" She finally queried, a little disconcerted.

"Nothing really. Just that I was thinking… That I actually enjoyed that little bit of insight you gave me. I wish they would teach me more practical stuff like that at the Castle. But instead I get preachy lectures and lengthy explanations as to what utensil I should pick up first during a formal dinner."

Emma sighed deeply and Regina had no idea how to respond to the things Emma had just told her. Perhaps she shouldn't say anything, she thought as she watched Emma stare off into the distance. But it still left her restless for the rest of the ride.

They arrived in Stonegate when sun was already setting, having come across a few shacks and cabins on the outskirts of the town earlier. It was built partially on the slope of one of the mountain sides, with a wooden palisade leading away from one side of the mountain, stretching out in a half circle towards the other side of it. There was a wooden gate made of two huge double doors near the middle of the palisade, with two watch-towers overlooking most of the visible area outside of the town. Regina couldn't recall anything about the town being fortified, but then she mused a lot of time had passed since then and the town did mine for much sought after gems and metals.

She proposed for Emma to stable the horses and shop for some groceries while she went to the local Tavern to get them rooms for the night. Though she didn't make the mistake this time around by having it sound like an order. Her worries proved unfounded when Emma took the money from her hands while shrugging and wandering off to a small market next to a wide range of stores.

The town was bustling enough for them to not stand out too much and Regina felt relieved for having one less thing to worry about. A few Dwarves, pickaxes and all were wandering through one of the streets and she had to actually force herself to look ahead of her instead of inspecting them more thoroughly. They looked a bit different than the Dwarves in their own Kingdom, bulkier at least, and she attributed it to the fact the Dwarves in these lands likely spent a lot of time inside the mountains.

There were a few stores which caught her attention, but she kept on walking, preferring a nice bath and a decent meal above browsing through various wares. She walked across a square and passed a few drunkards along the way. One of them attempted to grab her arm but a murderous glare made him stumble onwards. A couple of townguards stood close to one of the buildings, shouting things to a man dressed in dirty clothes, who was angrily gesturing around. She paid them little mind, though her eyes found the sign hanging from the building next door. It read 'The Picky Thief' and she shook her head at the Inn's name. She opened the door only to be confronted by a wall of noises and her nose wrinkled at the stench wafting from inside of the building. She promptly closed the door again and sighed as she thought over her options.

A man clad in farmer's clothes exited the Inn and though she hesitated at first, she decided to take the chance and approached him.

"Excuse me Sir, is there perhaps another inn in this town?"

She pretended to not be offended by the scrutinizing look thrown her way, but all suspicion vanished from his face a second later and he flashed her a quick smile while pointing towards the other side of the street. "There is. Other side of the square, it should be easy to spot."

"Thank you," she said with a polite tone. Though inwardly she cursed for having to lower herself to ask a peasant for directions.

She remained in a slightly foul mood until she found the building the farmer had told her about. The sign was hard to miss at least. But it was the picture on the sign and the name of the inn that had her chuckling. "The Rowdy Swan indeed," she murmured out loud as she grinned and opened the door of the building. There were a lot of people in there as well, but not as much as there had been in the other inn and she let out a little sigh of relief when her olfactory senses weren't as offended by the smell in this building either.

She haggled a little for the room, but the inn-keeper; a tall bearded man with a warm smile and a name she couldn't pronounce, seemed more amused by it than offended and they reached a deal far quicker than she had anticipated. He offered to have a tub and some hot water brought up for a few coins more and she agreed, wanting nothing more than to soak into the tub and wash off the collected grime from the days she had spent travelling. She ordered a few plates of food first however, along with some cups of wine. The sight of some of the patrons eating bread and stew had fired up her own appetite and it was making her empty stomach rumble in protest.

She was about to turn away from the counter and walk towards an empty table in the corner of the tavern when a thought struck her.

"Have you heard anything from traders coming up here from the south?" She asked. When he narrowed his eyes and gave her a suspicious look she clarified herself, "my companion and I are new to these lands, and we would only like to know if there's something we should be aware of before we travel onwards."

"I actually can't recall anything out of the ordinary, though…" He frowned for a moment before continuing. "Well, some of the trade caravans from the south are late. But it is actually a fairly common occurrence, it could merely mean the roads over there are still badly traversable since the winter lasted a lot longer than normal. Other than that I have nothing, unless you want some of the local gossip." He winked at her, rolling a copper coin between his finger and the desk and she snorted in response.

"No, thank you." She gave him some coins for his trouble and walked towards the table in the corner that was thankfully still empty.

The food and wine arrived shortly and she didn't waste any time on tearing off a little chunk of the bread on her plate. Though she almost choked on it when Emma suddenly appeared in front of her. She dropped a few packs and a rucksack next to the table, before seating herself opposite of Regina.

"You picked this place on purpose didn't you?" Emma muttered as she tore off a chunk off her own bread and took a bite from it.

She coughed a few times to clear her throat and took another sip of wine before flashing an almost serene smile at a narrow-eyed Emma. "I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about dear."

"Sure you don't," Emma said after she took a large gulp from her wine and Regina rolled her eyes at Emma's predictable table-manners. Or lack thereof. "The Picky Thief would've been just as good of a place to stay at."

"And the name would've fit you just as well," Regina fired back, smirking at Emma's mock-offended expression. "But my reason for going here was actually because there was a bigger crowd in the other inn and it also smelled like a pigsty in there."

"Probably because a lot of these guys don't have the words 'personal hygiene' in their vocabulary." Emma nodded towards the packs lying on a heap next to the table and smiled. "I got us most of the supplies we needed. Though I'll leave it to you to sort it out, I'm sure we can buy what's missing come morning." She stopped talking and leaned in a little before continuing. "I overheard some of the mercenaries and guardsmen talking about rumors of Orcs passing through these lands. They were apparently sighted in the woods south and east of here, and travelling northwards."

"Much like the tribe we came across," Regina murmured thoughtfully. "The inn-keeper mentioned some of the trade caravans from the towns south of here were overdue. Though he seemed convinced there was no cause for alarm."

"That he knows off," Emma spoke up after she sipped from her cup of wine. "But we have Orcs fleeing from south, and trade caravans which aren't arriving." Emma's eyes darted towards the other tavern patrons talking amongst themselves before she turned back to face Regina again. "I don't like the pattern that's forming. I mean it could just be a coincidence but.."

Emma let the sentence hang and continued drinking her wine and polishing off her food. But then, Regina thought as an uneasy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach, Emma hadn't needed to say anything else.

**-x-x-x-**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Sometimes things have to get worse before they are able to get better. (thank to everyone who has reviewed so far!)**

**8.**

* * *

><p>"I thought I had at least taught you how to use magic responsibly…"<p>

Emma merely shrugged in response to the chastising commentary. She looked up briefly to catch the lift of Regina's eyebrows, before dipping her head and staring at her hands again.

There were about a dozen bright silvery sparks dancing along her fingertips and circling around the skin above the bracer she wore. Wherever they came into contact with her skin, it was as if they left behind small pinpricks of heat that travelled across her arms and unspooled into a lazy warmth that spread across her entire being. It was a soothing feeling, and Emma hummed softly in contentment.

She could feel Regina's eyes on her, but no other words were forthcoming and Emma wondered what Regina was thinking. They hadn't spoken all that much ever since they left Stonegate early in the morning, but all throughout the day there had been a thick cloying tension that hung around them like a cloud.

"I usually just do that subconsciously, when my mind wanders and I need to center myself," Emma explained. She grinned and sent the sparks Regina's way. With her other hand she fished a pear-like fruit from her lap and took a large bite out of it while watching on amused as the sparkles circled around one of Regina's arms.

"Straight out of a bad vampire movie," Emma joked, as Regina eyed the tiny magic orbs warily. She was actually surprised when Regina spread out the palm of her hand and allowed the sparkles to move along them and twirl around her fingertips. But then Regina's other hand made a slow waving motion above the palm bathed in a soft silvery glow, and the magic was gone again.

Emma noticed the barely-there smile that played along Regina's lips however and she called it a mental victory.

In the distance she could hear an unfamiliar bird call, but beyond slightly twisting her head around to see if she could find the origin, she paid it little mind. It was hard to see much while they were traversing along the small mountain-pass; enclosed by walls of stone from both sides. Regina had insisted they were travelling the right way and that it wouldn't be that much longer now before they arrived at their destination, but Emma hadn't been so sure. A while back she had noticed another mountain-peak much further in the distance, covered in snow, and she shivered at the thought of having to spend the night while they were this high and completely exposed to the elements.

"Still worried we're lost, dear?"

"Huh?" Emma blinked and turned her head to look at Regina. "What? No..I'm not… You're not trying to read my mind, are you?" She asked incredulously.

Regina smirked at her and stood up from the small rock she had been sitting on. "I don't need to be a mind-reader to notice someone observing their surroundings while looking ill at ease." Patting down her clothes she walked over to where Alastor was grazing and toyed with the clips on one of the packs.

"Yeah well, it's not that. Though I'll admit this place gives me the creeps. It's a good spot for an ambush, or an avalanche. Or both for that matter. And I guess I just have latent claustrophobic issues and I'll be glad when we're back in the open again."

"But that's not what is really on your mind." It was more of a statement than an actual question and Emma sighed softly. Though she was relieved when Regina didn't press the issue further right away. Instead she fished the same type of fruit Emma had been eating from the pack she had been fiddling with, and took a small bite from it, seemingly content to bide her time.

"No, I guess it's not," Emma murmured, without attempting to clarify herself.

"Is it Henry?"

It was a pretty good guess. Good enough for Emma's head to snap up and for her eyes to lock with Regina's own. The expression on her face was gentle, reassuring and somehow warm enough to making something twist and turn around her heart. And it made her wonder why she had thought the way she had been able to read Regina was a one-way street, when it was so obvious now that Regina was able to see right through her every defense just as much. When had it all changed? At what point had she become this much of an open book? Enough for Regina to notice her obvious distress and seek her out on the Castle's balcony, when no one else had. Enough to know that all of the excuses she had just made were just that. A way to stall the inevitable conversation that would follow.

"I.. No, yes.." Emma blew out a long breath and tucked some of the loose strands of hair behind her ears. "I don't know…maybe? I know he might be worried at least. It was supposed to be a few days." It came out heavier than she intended. The tone of her voice giving away some of the frustration she was feeling, with nothing to channel it at.

"He'll be fine," Regina insisted, though Emma could see the sparks of doubt in her eyes that she was unable to hide. "If anything, knowing him, and especially knowing your parents, it's very likely he's already accompanying them on a search-party to find us both."

"Yeah that's going to be fun when I get back." Emma groaned and shook her head. She finished the rest of the fruit and threw away the bitter core that remained. "I'm probably going to be grounded for the rest of my life or something." She snorted and grinned for a moment, the mental image of her mother scolding her pushing away the dark thoughts that had been plaguing her most of the day.

She sobered up again a few seconds later, and the grin turned into something of a grimace instead as she peered at the winding path leading up the mountain. "I never meant for this trip to turn out the way it did," she confessed. "I just..after everything that happened, I figured.. I thought it would help..spending some time together. I thought it would.." She swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat and pushed on. "Fix things. I just wanted it to be the way it was before I screwed up everything between us."

"Emma…" Regina's eyes hardened and the expression on her face was unreadable. The half-eaten fruit in her hand tumbled to the ground carelessly and her lips were drawn into a thin line.

"No, wait.." Emma held up both of her hands, before she used them to launch herself up from the rocky ground she had been sitting on. "I know you said we can't fix this, but I don't believe you okay? I know.."

"Know what?!" Regina growled, her voice dangerously low. "I thought I had made myself perfectly clear before."

"So you're still going to pretend that everything that has happened between us lately means nothing?! Because I don't believe that either."

"Are you trying to insinuate something?"

"Am I trying to…" Emma gritted her teeth and angrily stalked over to where Regina was standing. "Are you honestly going to tell me that you don't feel anything at all?" Her nostrils were flaring as she attempted to stare Regina down. Though the way Regina remained completely unfazed on the outside, only ended up infuriating her even more. "You know I thought the issue was that I placed our friendship into jeopardy because of what happened. But that's just it, isn't it? We're actually past that. We've already moved past friendship and at least I'm trying to come to terms with it, but you won't even fucking acknowledge that there's something more between us. Just tell me why, Regina. Because I don't get it."

"Are you truly presumptuous enough to think that a few kisses, which you did initiate yourself, meant something more than simple attraction? Truly? I think you are confusing lust with love, dear."

Emma's eyes darted across Regina's face as she attempted to find something, anything to hint at Regina being this cold and dismissive on purpose. But when she couldn't find anything, her resolve started to crumble.

"You admitted to seeking me out at the ball.."

"Because you looked distressed, isn't that what friends do?" Regina remarked as she cocked her head and flashed a smile, though her eyes remained cold as ever. "I was trying to help you, and you rewarded that effort with a clumsy attempt at seduction by sticking your tongue down my throat." She was snarling now, her eyes two lumps of coal that were searing into Emma.

"Though it does explain why all of those suitors that attempted to woo you eventually stopped their futile efforts. I suppose even the prospect of a title and a generous dowry wasn't enough for them to see past who you really are, isn't that right dear?"

Every word that rolled across Regina's lips was slowly tearing her apart. But all attempts at finding her voice failed Emma as she tried to stop Regina from continuing and her entire body trembled in distress.

"Poor, poor, Princess," Regina mocked. "Too much damaged goods so they all bailed eventually before you could lead them into your bed. Is that how you got so desperate to have someone scratch that itch of yours that you went to m.."

She saw red. For just one split second, her vision went utterly red and she launched her fist at Regina before she could think better of it. Though Regina easily avoided the brunt of it, Emma's knuckles still glanced along her cheekbones and there was a look of shock and dismay in her eyes, before they became unreadable again. Emma was shaking with anger and grief, and the stabbing pain she was feeling brought tears to her eyes.

She didn't apologize. She didn't say anything at all. And although she had expected Regina to say something, or perhaps even hit her back, she just stood motionlessly and kept looking at Emma. Something flickered in her eyes, but Emma couldn't bother to decipher what it was. Choked off sobs made her stumble backwards until she found Pyrois, and she completely ignored Regina calling out her name as she mounted the horse hastily and rode away.

**-x-x-x-**


	9. Chapter 9

**9.**

* * *

><p>"Emma, stop." It sounded more desperate than her other attempts, even to her own ears, but Regina didn't care. "I'm sorry!" she yelled, hoping it would be enough to convince Emma to at least stop and listen to her. She spurred Alastor on some more, but she realized with some dismay if Emma wouldn't slow down, it was highly likely she would maintain the lead she already had.<p>

The crunching of gravelly sand mixed with the wind rushing along her ears as Regina called out Emma's name a few more times. But there was no visible reaction, and Regina took one last look at the hooded figure racing along the mountain-pass ahead of her before she slowed Alastor down to a canter. Emma disappeared from sight just a few seconds later as she rounded a small bend lined by a patch of trees.

A pang of guilt settled in her chest. The last glimpse she had caught of Emma's features before she had tugged the hood down and rode away, had been one of utter anguish. And she remembered all too well the haunting liquid green eyes catching her own for a moment, before Emma visibly flinched and turned away.

It was the first time she had called out Emma's name and apologized. Though she had known right from the start it would likely be a futile effort. She had cut too deep for it to be that simple. Crossed too many lines. She had known exactly which buttons to push, and how to keep pushing them, dismantling all of Emma's defenses bit by bloody bit. It was what she had always been good at after all. Finding people's weaknesses. Exploiting them to her own benefit.

But it had been nothing but pretense; every single one of the cold calculated words she had uttered. An attempt to fit into someone she no longer was. Someone she hadn't been for a while now. She had ignored the signs of something shattering in Emma's eyes. The beginnings of tears that appeared. She had attempted to justify it all. Anything and everything. She needed the space, the distance.

She hadn't expected Emma to actually lash out like she had. But it made her realize right away she had gone too far. And the ache she was feeling now also made her realize she couldn't keep doing this. Not when the way she had just deliberately hurt Emma was weighing so incredibly heavy on her heart.

She swallowed and tugged at her cloak, wrapping it more tightly around herself. The wind had started to pick up and it was growing colder as the sun slowly sank below one of the mountain peaks.

They would need to make camp on the stretch of flattened rock she had chosen as a vantage point, and the thought made Regina's stomach lurch. She could only hope Emma wouldn't attempt to continue travelling onwards.

Her thoughts kept drifting, and she barely noticed it when the terrain changed. They were still well enough below the tree-line for entire forests of pine trees to grow on the flanks of the mountains they was travelling past and the view of the evergreen forests stretching out around them was a welcome distraction. She stopped Alastor for a moment, when she came across a large amount of boulders and other debris to her left, and her eyes darted warily towards the crumbling mountain top above it. It looked to have happened a while ago, but it still put her on edge. She took a wide berth around it before ascending another steep slope. A huge boulder, its sharp weather-worn edges pointing skywards, loomed up ahead of her. It blocked most of her view of the lands she knew would stretch out behind it, though she surmised she had to be close to their destination now. It wasn't until she followed the narrow path around the boulder that her assumption proved correct, and Regina let out a sigh of relief.

Though her heartbeat started to accelerate when she noticed Pyrois wandering around untended. The horse was grazing next to a pair of trees sprouting upwards between some rocks at her right side and Regina dismounted her own horse to let it roam around freely as well. She knew both horses would never stray too far after all. But she still worried as to where Emma had gone. The entire area was littered with rocks that had slid down the mountain-side. Most of them were overgrown by yellow-green mosses and thorny shrubbery that she had to maneuver her way around. But her real concern was the amount of pine-trees that obscured her view. She knew, instinctively that Emma could have never gone far, but she hesitated as to actually attempt to find her or leave her be for the moment.

The need to make things right won out in the end, even though there was a sense of anxiety at the thought of what she was planning to do.

She caught glimpses of the fur cloak first, before actually stumbling upon Emma herself sitting on the overgrown remains of a fallen tree. Her head was bent downwards, as if she was staring at the ground lost in thought, but Regina could tell from the way Emma tensed up that her presence had been noticed.

"Are we going to keep repeating this?"

Emma speaking up first surprised her. Surprised her enough for the apologetic words she had been working her way towards, to never quite roll across her lips.

"You seeking me out each time I'm feeling upset about something?" Emma continued when Regina took few more steps towards her.

Regina wondered briefly why Emma sounded so calm and collected, where she would've expected anger or sadness instead. And at the same time she cursed the hood obscuring Emma's features for having her blindly stumble along while attempting to gauge Emma's current state of mind.

The words Emma had said stuck with her however. Like an echo coming back at her. But the thing that surprised her the most was how she couldn't even deny the underlying truth of them. How she might just do exactly what Emma had implied, over and over again. Seeking out Emma like this. Even if the only one to blame for it was herself.

She licked her dry lips and fixed her eyes on Emma again "I owe you an apology…" she murmured softly.

She thought of an abundance of wine and shared stories. Of the things Emma had confided to her. How hard it was to fit in, how hard it was to allow some of the noblemen of the Kingdom to try and win her hand in marriage. How she despised almost every single one of the vile pompous bastards when she found out that all they wanted was the Kingdom's riches, and the title plus power that came along with it. She thought of the way Emma's face had contorted in anger, the bitterness of her words, the desolation shining in her eyes.

She thought of the way she had used the trust placed in her as just another tool to reach an objective, and the ugliness of it all slithered darkly around her heart.

"I shouldn't have said those things to you."

"But you did," Emma replied almost immediately. Her head shot up, and Regina was startled by the intensity of fiery green eyes boring into her own for a moment before they averted to something in front of Emma again.

"Emma.." She knew there was something she had been meaning to say, but words eluded her again and she pushed her lips together again after a few seconds, in silent resignation.

"What I don't understand is why, Regina." Leaves rustled and a single twig snapped as Emma finally stood up and turned to face her. Something about Emma's voice made Regina ache as she spoke, and she found herself caught by the emotion in Emma's eyes, how they never wavered as they locked on Regina's own.

"I don't want your apology, I want you to tell me why."

"Because…" She swallowed and swallowed again, but the lump lodged in her throat remained. Her hands clenched to fists at her sides, but she kept her eyes trained on Emma, knowing fully well that she was about to give away everything she had been so desperate to hide. "I..I'm terrified," she admitted, the hitch in her voice giving away the cost of confessing how distraught she really was.

"I.." She mused Emma hadn't really expected that answer at all, the way her face scrunched up in confusion. "I don't understand...terrified of what?" Then Emma's eyes widened and her mouth opened on a soft gasp. "Wait...of m.."

"Yes," Regina blurted out before she could think better of it. "You. You...utterly terrify me."

"I never meant to.." Emma hesitated, frowned, and scratched at the skin of her cheek, the expression on her face betraying her confusion. "I just.. I thought that.." She faltered and her eyes kept darting everywhere.

"Emma I don't me..."

"That's why you reacted that way?" Emma interrupted, her voice small as she dipped her chin to her chest. A few long blonde strands of hair escaped the confines of her hood as she slowly shook her head. "Because I pushed you like that?"

"No."

"But.."

She surprised even herself by taking two long strides towards Emma and reaching out with her hands. She cupped Emma's chin with one hand, using the other one to gently slide the hood down.

"Regina…"

"I need you to look at me," Regina said with a soft placating tone. "I'm sorry," she whispered when Emma's eyes finally flitted up to lock with her own. "I'm not...I'm not good at using words to describe how I feel. But you were right about what you said before. That things..changed between us. I don't know when they did, but they have."

Emma expression was guarded throughout her monologue, but Regina swore there was some flicker of hope in Emma's eyes. It was all the more surprising to her when one of Emma's hands came up to pry away the loose hold Regina had on her chin, and Regina's heart clenched at the rejection of her gesture.

"You should've told me that, instead of insulting and taunting me," Emma murmured, her voice low. Her head had turned away from Regina again and her arms were wrapped around herself. Almost as if she was trying to subconsciously protect herself and a fresh wave of guilt rolled over Regina at the thought.

"I know."

"It hurt. It still hurts." There was a pause, and she could hear Emma taking a few deep breaths and Regina struggled to remain silent and give her the necessary time and space to vent.

"You know that's what one of the other kids said to me, when I got sent back again," Emma continued bitterly. "That no one wanted me because I was damaged goods. It hurt then but.. Hearing you say it hurt more than I could have imagined."

She was at a loss of how to respond to that. The way Emma spoke, the way her voice was so strained, it reminded her of something breaking. It brought back memories of herself, of things she didn't want to be reminded of and her throat constricted painfully as she attempted to clear her head of the unwanted thoughts.

"Emma I'm so.."

"I know, okay?" Emma spoke up harshly. "I know you're sorry, and I know you said you are terrified, but what I don't understand is why. What the hell terrifies you so much about me, that you felt the need to take it out on me like that?!"

"You make me feel..exposed," Regina explained. She kept her eyes trained on Emma's form, though she didn't make another attempt to reach out. The memory of Emma pulling away earlier still stung too much for that.

"How? And why is that.."

"A bad thing?" Regina filled in, and Emma's head tilted just a tinge her way, though she still didn't fully turn around to face her. "Because the last time I felt like this was a very long time ago Emma. And when he died in front of my eyes, I vowed to never make the same mistake again."

"There's nothing wrong with being vulnerable around the right people, Regina," Emma said. And then she did turn around for a moment, flashing a closed-lipped smile her way. "Though it would help if you stopped pushing me away." Emma smiled playfully while she spoke, and it was obvious to Regina, that she was attempting to keep it light enough to defuse the tense situation. But still, Regina couldn't help noticing, as she studied Emma's expression more closely, that there were signs of the mask she herself knew all too well.

"Emma…" she trailed off, not entirely sure of what to say. If there even was something she could say.

The corners of Emma's mouth drooped down, and the smile was more watery as she walked up to Regina. "I forgive you for what you said, okay? I think I forgave you before you even said sorry for the first time." Her hand came up, and Regina froze as she felt Emma's knuckles brush across the skin of her cheek. "There's more I want to say but..I think it can wait? I don't know about you, but I'm utterly exhausted."

Emma didn't look all that tired to Regina, but then she understood that Emma was most likely feeling just as emotionally drained as she was herself. She also recognized the gesture for what it was; a quiet break for them both, and she flashed a grateful smile Emma's way.

"I suppose we should make camp and secure the horses for the night."

"Right," Emma agreed. She smiled again before passing by Regina. Though she didn't get that far ahead before she spoke up again. "Hey Regina?" She called out over her shoulder and Regina looked up, unsure of how to interpret the grin that appeared on Emma's face.

"Just so you know; you kind of terrify me too."

* * *

><p>Sometimes when she saw Emma like this, it made her wonder if that was when it all started. When she had first stopped and looked at Emma; noticing things she had skipped past so many times before. How she saw past all of the pretenses, the bravado, past all of the walls Emma had put up to keep people out.<p>

It reminded her all too much of the moment when they had been alone above the deck shortly after leaving Neverland. She had wanted to ask Emma something, but she had stopped and frozen on the spot the moment she caught sight of her. And much like then, it felt as if her world had narrowed down to a single moment, a single place. The emotions freely flitting across Emma's features. The way she had stood there, smiling so very brightly, seemingly at peace for the first time ever since they had all started the journey to Neverland. All of it had served to stun Regina into silence.

It could've been that moment.

But the memory was in stark contrast to what had happened just a few hours ago, and she wondered how long it would take before Emma would be that open and unguarded again in her presence. Especially since she was at a loss of how to approach Emma even now.

A part of her never wanted this moment to end, a part of her wanted to live in the illusion it created; the moments before everything had changed. And she wondered if she had just fooled herself in the past. When she thought she could bury her feelings deep enough for them to eventually disappear altogether. Only to have them forced hard and fast to the surface the moment Emma kissed her with a longing that matched her own.

"I wish you would've told me about this view before. I mean..wow, Regina, it really is gorgeous. I can't believe how much I can see of the surrounding lands."

Emma speaking up so suddenly made her lose her train of thoughts and she glanced up just in time to catch the beatific smile directed her way, before Emma turned back to admire the view.

It was a really good vantage-point and she had taken a quick look before, while they were collecting some firewood for their campfire. But she had been more interested in finding something which would help them in figuring out what they were dealing with, more so than actually enjoying the picturesque landscape that unfolded in front of her. All she had been able to see to the south of their position was a large forest stretching out all the way to the horizon, and another mountain-range cleaving it in two. She hadn't wanted to discuss their options with Emma yet, since her mind was still stuck on their altercation less than an hour prior to that, but they would have to make a decision soon.

"It is a beautiful view, but it also doesn't reveal who or what might be responsible for driving out so many orcs from their lands."

"No, I guess you're right about that," Emma muttered. Her head dipped for a moment before she turned around and walked up to Regina. "I hope that's not how it's going to be from now on though."

"Excuse me?"

"You standing behind me, apparently not knowing what to say? You can still talk to me, Regina. Even with everything that happened between us just now. Wherever we're going with this, we were friends before that."

She thought of something to say in response to that, but Emma beat her to it by reaching for her hand and clasping it with one of her own for a moment. There was a gentle squeeze and then the loss of touch and warmth and Regina couldn't stop her expression from faltering.

"I just..uhm," Emma was blushing now and there was something endearing about it that spread warmth across her chest. "Well, I just thought you should know that. I miss our talks." A grin appeared as Emma tilted her head slightly, "our mostly drunken talks."

"You mean the ones we were having as a result of you appropriating half the liquor present in your parents wine-cellar?"

Emma snorted. "Considering you were my partner in crime, I don't think you're allowed to make that sound as if I was involved in illegal activities."

Chuckling, Regina allowed herself to enjoy the light-hearted moment between them for a moment before she spoke up again. "Thank you," she said simply, while barely restraining the urge to wrap her fingers around some of the loose strands of golden hair that framed Emma's face. _Later_, she thought, as she reluctantly turned around to head back to the campsite they had set up in the shadow of one of the fallen boulders. Later, when a little more time had passed for her to process everything that was building between them, and when there were no more distractions.

"Of course," Emma answered with a smile. Her eyes were bright and there were tiny sparks in them dancing along with some of the last remaining rays of sunlight. "Before we head back though, do you know anything about those towns down there? The one built next to the river seems really big, even from here, and I'll admit I'm intrigued by it."

"Greydrift?" Regina questioned, though she judged from the mystified look on Emma's face that she had no idea what Regina was talking about. "It's a city-state actually. Independant. Most of the cities and towns are self-governed around these lands. They thrive through trade, and Greydrift is one of the more prospering cities along with Fradena to the far south of the river Chron."

"So those little blips are trade ships?"

Regina blinked and then frowned as she peered at the river flowing south from Greydrift. Though she hadn't really noticed them before, she realized Emma was right with her observation. Partially right at least.

"I don't think those are trade ships…" she muttered while wishing she was able to see more details of the fleet that was slowly sailing down the river.

"No? But…"

"From what I know, merchants usually only travel in small convoys. There aren't many threats for them on the Chron. But Greydrift, being a city on a crucial position along the river has had many conflicts with other city-states in the past, like Fradena for example, and I know they possess one of the largest fleets in these lands."

"So what does that mean, that they're at war again or something?"

"No." The answer was immediate, because she knew for sure they would've heard about a brewing war by now.

"Those are dozens of ships though, why the hell would they all sail out like that?"

"I don't know," she answered truthfully. But then a thought hit her as her eyes remained fixed on the river in the distance.

South. The ships were sailing south.

**-x-x-x-**


	10. Chapter 10

**10.**

* * *

><p>"I always thought storm-season was during the fall, not early spring," Emma groused as she tugged the drenched hood of her cloak back down again.<p>

Wet tendrils of hair clung to her cheeks and the clammy fabric of the hood resting across her forehead wasn't doing much for her body temperature either. But it was still better than the bitterly cold raindrops driving themselves into her eyes like tiny little knives, making it impossible for her to see anything of their surroundings.

"We should ride to the woods up ahead to find shelter and continue our search when the storm has died down somewhat," Regina suggested with a raised voice.

Emma winced as the sound of a loud thunderclap blocked out the howling winds and the torrential downpour for a moment. Bending her body slightly forward, she repositioned herself in the saddle. It made her smaller, but she wasn't under any illusions it would help protect her from the storm they were travelling through. Though she hoped huddling down like this would at least help her hold onto some of the body heat that remained, especially with her fingers already feeling like icicles the way they were wrapped around the reins in a deathgrasp.

"In what world is sheltering near some trees while you're in the middle of a lightning-storm, a good idea?"

"Would you prefer staying out here and freezing to death, dear?"

"Whatever happened to option three?" Emma grumbled. Then she sighed, "I guess the woods it is."

She wiped away some stray drops from her face and surveyed their surroundings. The woods definitely were the closest to them in terms of shelter, though it would take them quite a distance away from the river they had been following for the past hour or so. Then again, she mused as she stared at the ripples created on the water's surface along the riverbank, they hadn't made all that much progress to begin with. It didn't help that they were only able to catch some glimpses of one side of the river, most of it was obscured by the torrential downpour.

While they had known they would be travelling into the storm after descending down the other side of the mountain, they had severely underestimated how bad the weather would get. They had assumed they would've been able to locate the fleet they had seen the previous night rather easily, before having to bear the brunt of the storm. But that outlook had changed the moment they had been pelted by a neverending downpour of icy rain. Emma wasn't even sure where they were right now, and they still hadn't seen any signs of the fleet of ships either. Though Regina had been attempting to reassure her over the past couple of hours that they would stumble upon the fleet soon enough. Especially since it was highly likely the fleet had needed to get into a proper formation first before sailing down the river at full speed. But with the need to find some shelter now her worries arose anew whether or not they would actually be able to locate the fleet and acquire the much-needed information as to what their destination was.

"You think those ships will stop to wait out the storm as well?"

"Still worried they are sailing much further south from here, are we?"

"That didn't answer my question." Emma frowned. "I think?" She followed after Regina as they found a decent path for their horses to travel on, and a little sigh of relief escaped her as she realized they were crossing the last part of the valley.

"The fleet we saw was large enough to take hours to navigate along these narrow bends, Emma. The storm won't make it any easier for them either. So to answer your question, I think it's fine if we wait until the weather clears before continuing. Even if they would have already sailed further south again, we'll at least be able to see something."

Emma snorted as she attempted to flex the fingers of her free hand. "Yeah it would be nice to be able to actually see where we're travelling." Holding the hood down, she tilted her head skywards and groaned at seeing nothing but a blanket of dark grey clouds and the occasional lightning strike illuminating everything in sight.

They reached the first patches of trees some ten minutes later and slowed down their horses to orientate themselves. Emma was shivering uncontrollably by now, her teeth chattering without her consent and her eyes darted around wildly to find some good place to make camp. The sooner she was out of her heavy rain-soaked coat the better.

She knew Regina had cottoned on to her early onset of hypothermia by the worried glances cast her way.

"This way," Regina spoke up and Emma merely nodded tiredly in response, nudging Pyrois in that direction.

She was barely able to feel her feet anymore and the slight drowsiness she was feeling didn't bode very well either. She knew Regina likely wasn't as affected by the cold because she wore more layers of clothes than Emma, and she once again cursed her decision to pack lightly for this trip.

"If you can, remove the bedrolls and the extra clothing from the horses, I'll take care of the rest," Regina said. And though there was a spark of defiance flaring as it sounded like an order, Emma didn't act on it and dismounted Pyrois wordlessly.

They were in the middle of a small patch of trees growing in a half circle. The ground was covered in rain-soaked moss, and Emma wondered how they would manage to warm their bodies up when their already wet bedrolls would get drenched the moment she laid them down. But then she saw Regina make a few gestures with her hands towards the tree branches stretching out overhead and she understood what she was trying to do.

Her own gestures were lazy and uncoordinated, and she didn't even know if it worked properly. But barely a minute later there was a large canopy of intertwined branches and leaves above their heads and she cracked the faintest of smiles at the sight of it.

"Think you can manage a few more spells?" Regina asked gently, and Emma felt her heart do flips at the clear concern shining in Regina's eyes as they focused on her.

"Y-yes," she croaked out. A hand came to rest on her arm and turned her towards Regina and she rose an eyebrow up in silent question.

"Remove the cloak Emma, it's useless, and the sooner we both get rid of our wet clothes the better."

"R-r-right."

She got rid of the cloak almost instantly, not caring if it got dirty or if it absorbed even more of the rainwater from the wet ground. At least it would stop the rest of her armor and under clothes from getting even more soaked through. And her movements were easier since she was no longer bogged down by the heavy saturated cloak. From the corners of her eyes she registered Regina removing her own cloak and hanging it across one of the lower branches.

"Follow my lead."

She thought she could remember this spell, though she couldn't recall if she had read up on it in one of Regina's books, or if it had been something Regina had attempted to teach her at some point. But she did recognize the gestures and the waves of bright magic as they passed across the ground and how it dried any surface the spell touched.

Moments later Regina was making a small campfire, using another touch of magic to dry the branches and moss. A small fireball appeared in her outstretched palm and lit the campfire up and Emma sighed as she sank down on the forest floor, as close to the fire as she was able to.

She could hear Regina working on placing packs down and removing other things from the horses but she didn't bother to actually check what was going on. The warmth of the fire licked along her skin and she felt the earlier sense of drowsiness return in full force.

"Emma."

Dark glittering eyes regarded her quietly, and she wasn't able to pull her eyes away from the depth of the emotion that shone within them. She looked tired, Emma thought, and she wondered if it was just from the day's events or if it had something to do with their fight and the conversations that followed on the heels of it.

Vaguely she registered half of a loaf of bread that was extended to her, and a strip of dried meat that followed. She mumbled a 'thank you' around a bite of the bread and expected Regina to find something to eat herself as well. Instead, Regina kneeled down in front of her and moved one of her hands to her forehead. She mumbled something under her breath that Emma couldn't understand and then started to undo the knots of the laces on her boots.

"You know I-I'm perfectly capable of undressing myself," Emma muttered, though she made no attempts to stop Regina. A few witty remarks were on the tip of her tongue, but she decided against them and wolfed down her food. Something in Regina's eyes as they continued to glance up at her face made her think this wasn't the time for jokes. "I'm..I'm fine, you know?" She said instead. She placed a hand on Regina's knee as she spoke and smiled sweetly when Regina's eyes finally rose and met her own.

"I wouldn't call your current state fine," Regina whispered, the hints of worry lacing through her words. She finished untying both of the boots before undoing the fastenings on the belt that held up Emma's scabbard and sword.

"Maybe not," Emma conceded, "b-but I'm not in any danger either." She received no answer in return, and she could only watch on surprised as Regina continued removing her gear and clothes. "Regina," she tried again a few seconds later, wishing she could figure out what had Regina in such a weird mood. Because she was fairly sure it wasn't just the fact she was suffering from the effects of a really bad downpour. "What's wrong?"

"Everything?" It sounded like a question more so than an answer and Emma didn't understand. Much like she didn't understand the way Regina avoided eye-contact as she spoke, or the expression on her face that made it seem as if she was in pain. She didn't understand and she didn't know how to ask Regina to make her understand.

"I've been thinking. Mostly about our altercation before. About what I..said." She could make out from the expression on Regina's face; the way her hands stopped toying with the bracers on Emma's arms and curled to loose fists at her sides, that she was having difficulties explaining herself.

"It's okay, we talked it…"

"Did we?" Regina interjected, her voice small and barely there. "When we talked about my mother, about the ways she.." There was a hitch in her voice and it was all Emma was able to to do to stop Regina from continuing. But something told her this was important and she waited while she continued to slowly peel her armor away from her clammy skin

"I trusted you with that information. I trusted you to never use it against me."

Suddenly she understood where Regina was going with this, and she attempted to stop her from doing so, by placing her fingers across Regina's lips. "I know, okay? I know what you're trying to say. I already told you I forgive you."

A hand came up and curled around her wrist, gently pushing to make her fingers slide away again.

"I know you do." Regina smiled as she stood up and Emma could only frown in confusion. "But I still betrayed that trust that we had built up between us. I still.. I didn't realize the true impact of what I had done until I saw that look in your eyes."

"Don't…" Emma mumbled as she threw a pleading look Regina's way. She didn't think she could handle this again. The wounds were still too fresh. They always seemed too fresh, and she wondered if the pain associated with them would ever really go away.

"I shouldn't have called you damaged goods."

And Emma just took shuddery breaths after that, willing the tears that welled up in her eyes to go away again. She swallowed and closed her eyes, but the hot burning liquid in them spilled over the edges anyway.

"Emma," she could hear whispered near her ears, and she sensed Regina was standing somewhere behind her. A single hand came to rest on her shoulders, another brushed away some stray damp locks of hair from her neck and Emma was unable to get out any word to ask what Regina was doing.

"When I decided to adopt I did some research. I..I don't remember what prompted me to do so anymore, but I looked up what happened to the children who grew up in the system. And I.." Regina sighed audibly, and the hand that had been hovering near Emma's neck moved downwards to stroke her cheeks before settling on her chin to tilt it upwards. "I know, Emma. I know, and I shouldn't have called you that. I never should've called you that."

"And yet, isn't it the truth?" Emma stated bitterly, as she attempted to wrench away the fingers curled around her chin.

She hated this; the self-loathing that came with these memories. The thoughts of the moments when she was sent back. When she wondered what was so wrong with her that she was returned like a discarded item that was no longer of any use to someone. What was so wrong with her, that it continued to happen over and over again. And she tried, the first few times. She tried to be perfect, to be outgoing, to be a happy carefree child that enjoyed everything the family did for her. But it hadn't been enough. And she stopped trying. She stopped trusting. She stopped hoping.

She started to believe the words. She started to accept them as the truth.

"No. It is not." The words were said softly but with an underlying tenderness that rendered Emma speechless. She stared up into Regina's gentle brown eyes, that almost looked as if they were glowing along with the light cast by the campfire. "And I'm sorry," Regina said, her voice breaking. She averted her eyes that were shimmering now, and stood up abruptly.

Emma shivered anew as sudden chill ran across her back with the loss of Regina's body heat behind her. When she turned to find Regina, she found her walking back from where the horses were tied down. She had their bedrolls in her hands and rolled them out next to the fire, and Emma moved to lie down on the one that belonged to her with a grateful flash of a smile Regina's way.

Regina had both of their fur coats in her hands next and Emma couldn't help the no doubt puzzled look that appeared on her face at what she might be up to. A few simple gestures with her free hand and a shimmer of magic enveloped both of the coats hanging across Regina's arm. Then she looked at Emma again, a wicked little smirk curving her lips upwards that had Emma's mouth run dry at the implications behind it. She knew from experience whenever Regina had that expression on her face, it never amounted to much good.

Instead of giving her any explanations however, Regina laid down on her own bedroll, placed right next to Emma's own. But before she could mention that there was plenty of space on the other side of the fire, Regina placed the fur coats over her body, and the next thing Emma knew she could feel a gust of wind blowing across her damp skin. Her damp _naked_ skin. Her eyes went huge as saucers when she noticed the two piles of clothes a few feet away from where they were lying, and she quickly pulled the fur cloak further across her body.

"Seriously Regina?"

"It was taking too long, and you _were _wearing leather dear," Regina remarked somewhat haughtily. "Wet leather. This was a far easier solution."

"Could've given me a warning at least," Emma muttered, though she had to admit to herself at least she was relieved to be free of the wet leather clinging to her skin. A soft humming sound was all the response she got in return and Emma rolled her eyes, flicking them from the magically intertwined web of branches overhead to the woman lying next to her.

"Thank you though."

"You're welcome." She caught the furtive glances her way right after Regina's response, and Emma wondered what else she meant to say. "Emma?"

"Yeah?"

"You once told me that whatever happened in the past, it doesn't define us."

She did remember that. The moment in one of the castle's gardens. Late at night, under the starlight while they were both a little tipsy from the red wine they had been drinking. Regina's mentions that she had been so afraid, and still was sometimes, that she would end up being like her mother. And she remembered being unable to find the right words to assure her at first. And she remembered thinking of her own past, and how she had been so determined to rise above all of the crap thrown at her during her childhood.

"I remember," Emma said, turning her head to look at Regina. Her hair was dark and slightly wet where it clung to her skin, and what she could see of her body was bathed in the golden glow cast by the campfire. "And I know. Thank you," she repeated.

Her eyes flicked to Regina's lips without meaning to, and she so badly wished right there and then that they were at this point already. Where she could just lean in and kiss Regina sweetly on the lips without needing to deepen the contact. Just a soft affirming brush of lips against lips, and she could feel her heart hammer in her chest as she imagined it.

"Emma?"

"Hm?" She blinked and blushed slightly when she noticed Regina studying her intently. "You said something? Sorry I uhm.. I was kind of..thinking about something."

"Thinking of?" The question was a breathless exhale and was she imagining it or were Regina's eyes dipping to her own lips ever so often?

"Kissing you," Emma blurted out, heat suffusing her cheeks upon realizing the full extend of what she had just revealed. "I just..I really want to but…" She left the sentence hang with a little huff of frustration and was about to turn on her other side when she heard the rustling of fabric. The tips of Regina's fingers trailed across her cheek and jaw and then before she could even process the movement, Regina leaned in and pressed their lips together. She pulled slightly backwards again afterwards, something unreadable in her eyes, and then she leaned in again and repeated the previous kiss. The contact always remained light, exploratory, sometimes punctuated with a soft flick of a tongue or the gentle capturing of one of her lips between teeth.

When Regina eventually withdrew completely, and Emma opened her eyes to look at her, she was treated to the sight of one of the most beautiful smiles she had ever witnessed.

"You still terrify me," Regina said, though the tone she used gave away the playfulness of the statement.

"Sure? Well your ability to get me naked in less than a second flat terrifies me as well."

Regina's response was a soft laugh, a sound which made Emma feel the warmth spreading across her cheeks "I'm sure it will be useful in the future."

Emma's mouth sagged open at the comment, but then she shook her head, a wry grin of amusement plastered across her face as she burrowed further into her bedroll and the fur cloaks stacked across both of their bodies. "Once we're back home I intend to hold you to that."

"Indeed. Good night Emma."

**-x-x-x-**


	11. Chapter 11

**11.**

* * *

><p>"I assume this means you're feeling better?" Regina spoke up, her head tilting sideways to properly look at Emma.<p>

She had sensed she was being being watched while waking up, and it hadn't been all that surprising to find Emma sitting across the now extinguished campfire, her arms wrapped around her knees and seemingly content to quietly observe her.

"Well I suppose none of my digits fell off, so I guess?" Emma quipped, and Regina resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the typical response.

She also resisted the urge to comment on how she had found a certain limb wrapped across her waist in an almost possessive way when she had woken up in the middle of the night. The memory brought a small wave of embarrassment along with it, but in a way it had also felt comforting to her. She had felt safe, with Emma's presence so close to her. Even safer than the wards which she had conjured up before laying down to sleep made her feel. And it was enough for her to keep her awake at night. To keep having her eyes drawn towards the woman, her sleep-tousled hair framing half her face, peacefully slumbering next to her. She remembered thinking Emma looked so much younger while she was sleeping. The little half-smile playing around her lips as her fingers curled around Regina's waist had made her suck in a shaky breath and lay perfectly still while debating whether to wake Emma up or not, but eventually the toll of the day's events had caught up with her and sleep overtook her.

Something expanded in her chest at the thought that Emma might've watched her sleep this morning for as long as she had watched Emma the night before.

"Perhaps the prospect of possibly losing a limb to frostbite will be enough incentive for you to pack some clothes that actually protect you the next time we go on a journey somewhere."

All she got was a huge smile in response and both of her eyebrows hiked up into her hairline. "Why are you smiling?"

"You said 'next time'."

"Out of all the things…" She shook her head, and with a small flick of her wrist put her clothes back on. Though she wrinkled her nose at having to wear them again, and made a mental note to wash them as soon as they reached a body of water.

"I got us some berries for breakfast."

"You've certainly put the early morning to good use, haven't you?"

Emma shrugged and stood up. "You were still sleeping soundly when I woke up."

Regina thought she saw a blush spreading across Emma's cheeks, giving them a rosy color, and then there was the fact she was refusing to meet Regina's eyes as she spoke. Smiling to herself, she could only guess that Emma had woken up to find her arm wrapped around Regina's waist and struggled to untangle herself without disturbing her sleep.

"And yeah I guess I figured it would be good to get an early start on the day," Emma muttered from where she was standing next to the grazing horses. She walked back while unwrapping a bundle of cloth she was carrying, revealing the freshly picked red berries. "I can also already hear your unspoken question about them being possibly poisonous, and I suppose we'll find out in a few hours from now, since I already ate a few on the way back here."

Emma smirked, her eyes sparkling with joy as she set down one of their waterskins next to their bedrolls. "They're safe though, I have paid attention to the things you told me when we went camping in the woods with Henry the last time."

The mention of that trip they had taken, just a few days before Emma's birthday made her thoughts drift. She couldn't remember too much of that day, but there had already been a shift in the nature of their relationship even then. And she wondered if she had just been blind for far too long to notice how everything between them kept building and building.

She was also reminded of her own suggestion just days ago. Before everything had come crashing down from the tension which kept building up between them. It had been a spur of the moment thing. The thought of going to the coast, and spending some time there. Together, as a family. A spur of the moment thing she had almost instantly regretted as soon as the words had rolled across her lips.

But now.

Now she couldn't help wanting nothing more than that. As her eyes settled on Emma's features again and she returned the smile Emma was giving her, longing for something didn't feel like the weakness she had long believed for it to be.

"Thank you," she murmured as she slipped a few of the berries into her mouth and slowly chewed down on them. They were not as sweet as she had imagined them to be, and despite the fact she wasn't overly fond of berries in general, she surprised herself by eating every last one of them.

There was an odd look on Emma's face right after she thanked her, and Regina had no idea what to make of it.

"I should thank you instead," Emma said after another moment had passed.

Though she didn't clarify, and Regina didn't know what to make of Emma standing up after she had spoken, and walking up to her. "For helping out last night?"

"Yes," Emma answered simply. "And for..for what you said."

"I was merely repeating the same words you once t.."

"But you remember them. You understand them," Emma interrupted her. One of her hands was extended palm outwards, and Regina flicked her eyes up to look at Emma, before she accepted the offer and allowed herself to be pulled up. "You understand…" Emma stopped speaking and after a moments hesitation leaned in to press a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth.

"I just..wanted you to know that.."

She wasn't able to resist reaching out herself; caressing one of Emma's cheekbones with the pads of her fingers, as she gazed into hazel-green eyes shimmering with emotion. "I.." she stopped and cleared her throat; constricted by all the things she wanted to say. But the words simply eluded her. "There are things I need to say, but..."

"But we need to continue our journey first."

"Yes. I suppose we do."

Emma looked past her, lips slowly curving into a smile. "I came across a small stream up ahead we can use to refresh and for the horses to drink before we move on."

The water proved to be clean enough for them to refill their skins too, and she used a little magic to help speed up the washing of their clothes. She was relieved to find the weather having cleared, and they were soon leading their horses along a trail she had determined to lead back to the Chron river.

"Can we visit Greydrift after this?"

"Any particular reason why we should?" Regina wondered as she glanced over at Emma. She thought of how far the town would be from where they were and mused they would actually be able to reach it before nightfall. Though she preferred to travel straight back home, instead of taking that detour. It had been too long since she had seen Henry, and she was starting to miss him more and more as the days passed.

"Well considering the lovely weather we've been having lately, I wouldn't mind being near a town when the next inevitable thunderstorm hits. I think I've seen enough rain and lightning to last me the rest of my lifetime," Emma grumbled as she steered Pyrois around a fallen tree.

"I do not think I will ever understand your fear of lightning."

Emma muttered something under her breath Regina couldn't understand, and she was distracting from inquiring what might've caused Emma to be afraid of lightning in the first place, by something scuttling away in the underbrush.

They eventually reached some grassy area closer to the Chron river, and stopped for a moment to orientate themselves. The river made a sharp bend to the northeast from where they were and there were more woods that blocked their view as well. They could still see south along the river, but there was no sign of the fleet they had observed earlier and Regina found her attention drawn back towards the woods in the distance.

"Something wrong?" Emma queried.

The word 'no' was hanging on her lips, but something made her hesitate. Because she knew in reality they should've spotted the fleet by now. And then there was the smell that she had picked up on a minute ago.

"I'm not sure," she said honestly, she shared a quick look with Emma before spurring Alastor onwards. "There's an odd smell in the air."

"Yeah. I thought that was just me but.. Smoke right? That's what it reminds me of at least. Gunpowder?" Emma asked as she hurried Pyrois up to ride alongside Regina.

"Could be." But it reminded her too much of something else. It reminded her of wood burning. And she would know, she thought with a sudden lump in her throat at the surfacing of unwanted memories.

The smell was stronger the closer they got to the woods and Regina caught some of the worried glances cast her way by Emma as they followed the river's course downstream. They had only travelled through the woods for a little while when they came across rows of trees laying on the forest floor. Some of them had become uprooted and had fallen over onto other trees, making it impossible for them to continue travelling on horseback.

"I guess last night's storm wreaked havoc here too," Emma murmured as she dismounted from Pyrois. "I suppose you'll want to at least travel to the river's edge to see if we can spot the fleet there?"

"Would there be a problem with that?" Regina inquired, a little curious as to what brought out the little whine in Emma's voice.

"Other than my boots being ruined you mean?" Emma cocked her head down after she finished tying Pyrois to one of the trees. "I'm guessing the uprooted trees have something to do with the ground being absolutely drenched. Can't you do one of those spells of yours to help with that?"

"On the entire forest?" Regina asked incredulously.

"Yeah, guess not." Emma shook her head and Regina's eyebrows rose when she unsheathed her sword.

"Unless you want to have one of your eyes poked out, I'm going to cut us a path to the river," Emma answered her unspoken question.

"I _could _use magic for that actually."

"Yeah..no, I saw what you did with those branches when you took out those Orcs. I think I'll take my chances with a sword that won't suddenly take on a life of its own."

Regina shook her head, a bemused smile playing along her lips at Emma's unfounded fear. "Lead the way then," she said as she looked down at the ground and made a face at how far her own boots sank away into the soil.

Every time she took a step there was a squishing sound that made her cringe, and she muttered expletives under her breath when some mud got splattered on her dress by one of Emma's cut down branches falling down in a small puddle.

"You notice they've pretty much all fallen into the same direction?" Emma spoke up after a few minutes. "It reminds me a little of giant domino stones."

She had noticed, though she had chosen to remain silent about it. Much like she had also noticed how the terrain became more muddy the further they walked, and some of the trees they were coming across now were missing most of the leaves as well as the smaller branches.

In the distance, she noticed something white and grey moving back and forward. She thought it to be a flag or some tattered piece of cloth, but it was hard to see from where she was standing. Her vision was mostly obscured, and the object she had spotted only seemed to move along with some stray gusts of wind.

Emma sheathing her sword again drew her attention back to the trail they had been making, and she quirked an eyebrow up as she looked at the haphazardly fallen over trees blocking their path.

"You want to magic these away or try to pass around them? I think think we can fit underneath these two trees here and continue onwards." She watched on as Emma walked over to the two huge uprooted trees. The way they had fallen the trees only left a tiny gap in the middle where they might be able to pass through. Though Regina wasn't looking forward to any possible rips in her dress as a result.

"I don't see why we should move into that direction actually. The path ahead has been easy enough to traverse."

"Yeah but the river is over here."

"No it should be more north from here." Regina frowned and walked over to where Emma was standing. And noticed the same thing she assumed Emma had seen, there were less trees there and the area appeared to be clearer. Less trees, but there shouldn't be, and Regina swallowed convulsively as she used a spell to pry the two fallen trees next to Emma further apart without warning.

"Hey!" Emma called out as she stumbled backwards, though Regina paid her little mind. "What the hell is wrong with…" She stopped mid-sentence and Regina could hear Emma gasp in surprise.

"What the hell happened here?!" Emma questioned, a startled expression on her face.

"I don't know."

Because she had no idea what the hell could've caused such a large amount of trees to just disappear altogether. Or what could've caused the riverbank to have broken off completely and having sank into the river. It looked like something had instantly transformed everything in front of them into swampland. Trees were piled haphazardly on top of something that was sticking up in the middle of it all, with two small streams of water flowing around it.

And everywhere she looked there were large broken off branches strewn around as if someone had picked them up and then tossed them away again without a care in the world. Back in Storybrooke she remembered having seen documentaries depicting damage caused by floods, and what she was seeing now reminded her of that. Only it was if the opposite had happened. The flattened trees, the area completely devoid of them closer to the river, and the damage to the river itself, it reminded her more of an implosion, like something had drawn everything inwards for some reason.

"Oh God," Emma exclaimed, and Regina saw her run to the side of the muddy grounds.

"Emma?"

She was about to ask what was wrong when she saw it herself. Half obscured by the mud and a tree broken in half, there was a large piece of a hull lying on it's side. A canon was sticking out of the mud close by, and there were many other wooden fragments strewn around everywhere. But it wasn't until she walked around Emma that she noticed the bodies. One man, dressed in what remained of a traditional navy costume, was crushed face down underneath a enormous branch, and there was another body lying close to the canon. Though all she was able to see from him was his head, upper body, and a single arm twisted inwards towards his chest. There was still a rusty spot near his body, and she had to avert her eyes from the bone protruding from one side of his arm.

"This..this wasn't caused by a flood was it?"

"No. I'm not sure what could've caused this."

Her eyes scanned their surroundings and she felt numb with the scale of destruction stretching out in front of her. There were more chunks of wood and various items used on ships, spread across the ground north from where they were standing. The more she saw, the more bodies she found, and her stomach turned at the thought of how many sailors would've perished here, considering the amount of ships that had been sailing down the river. Most of the bodies were scattered between the trees, though a few were lying on top of what remained of the ships they had sailed on. One particularly large section of wood was lodged between a clutter of trees. The tattered and dirty remains of what had once been a ship's sail were caught in one of the tree's branches. Every now and then it flapped around a little with the winds, and Regina realized it was the same piece of cloth she had caught glimpses of a few minutes prior.

"You said...there were dozens of ships, but…" Emma had walked up to a piece of a mast sticking up from the mud and she was looking at it pensively as she spoke. Then she turned and glanced across her shoulders and Regina wondered what she was thinking as her eyes darted around. "All this," Emma continued, "it might be from two or three ships at the most. I..where did the rest go, Regina?"

"It is possibly some escaped whatever transpired here."

"But what did transpire here? I mean.." Emma shook her head and confused green eyes found Regina's own for a moment, before they flicked away again. "You think this was caused by some kind of weapon? Could something magical have done this?"

The questions came as a surprise to her, though they also aligned with where her own thoughts had been drifting. It made her lick her lips, while attempting to tamp down on the sparks of nervosity she felt at the subject. After all she was painfully aware of what magic could do when it was funneled into something like a dark curse. The devastation that was wrought all around them was minor however and she wondered if there was a reason it seemed this controlled. As if there was someone out there with enough magical power to bend and shape the elements to their will and cause something like this.

She locked eyes with Emma for a second and thought of what she had said. A weapon. And Regina wondered if Emma had been onto something.

"Whomever is leading Greydrift right now would never have sent out most, if not their entire navy, without a good reason. The city is well fortified and they have their own army, but the fleet of warships they possess is their largest defensive as well as offensive asset."

"So what..they knew what they were sailing into?" Emma asked.

She caught the incredulous glance directed her way, before it was replaced by a solemn expression as Emma hunched down next to another sailor's body. "This wasn't even a fair battle Regina." Emma shook her head, and there were hard lines drawn around her face. "If this was even a battle at all. From the looks of the mess all around us, it seems more of a slaughter to me."

"And we have yet to find out why," Regina stated as she looked around to survey their surroundings once more. "But if we are to get any answers we should travel to Greydrift as fast as possible."

Emma's head whipped up sharply at that, and there was a question burning in her eyes as she stood up abruptly. "You think they might be in danger?"

"I don't know. But I'm assuming that if some ships did survive whatever took place here, they will be found in Greydrift."

"And our answers along with them."

Regina flashed a soft smile Emma's way, before carefully stepping around the large puddles of water and mud. Her boots were starting to soak through, and she could feel the clammy coldness taking hold of her feet. Making a face, she was about to tell Emma they might be better of taking a small detour around the worst of the muddy soil, when she noticed a flash of blonde in her vision. She turned her head in time to see Emma making a beeline for a few oblique trees surrounded by chunks of wood.

"What are you doing?" She huffed out on a disgruntled tone. The longer they stayed here, the less likely they would be able to make it to Greydrift before nightfall.

"I thought I.." Emma halted. "Saw someone," she finished a second or two later, and Regina sighed under her breath before trudging across the dirt and making her way towards Emma.

She wanted to scold Emma for her impulsiveness and lack of communications in general, but then her eyes settled on the form lying in front of Emma. A young sailor; seemingly still in his teens, was lying on his side, next to one of the trees. One of his legs was a badly mangled mess. A large jagged piece of bone protruded through his pants at an odd angle, and she assumed he had bled out from his wounds because of the rust colored soil that surrounded him.

"For a moment I thought he was alive," Emma spoke up, and Regina caught the shimmering of tears in her eyes as Emma glanced her way, before she focused her attention back on the sailor. "From a distance he looked as if he was resting, you know?" Emma murmured.

"There might be others that did make it out of this alive."

"Yeah, but we don't have the time to try and find them, now do we?

"I suppose we don't, no," Regina answered as she took one last glance at man before turning around.

"You see this?" Emma said. Regina followed her line of sight to some impressions made in the mud. "He crawled for a while. He.." Her lips pursed and Regina was stunned by the swift change in Emma's demeanor. "When we followed up on your hunch, after we ran into those Orcs, all I wanted to do was go home again, Regina. All I wanted to do was…" Emma left the sentence hanging and there was visible anger in her eyes when they returned to meet Regina's own. "I want to find out what happened here. I want to find out who did this, and why, and I want to catch whomever is behind this. Whomever is responsible for a painful death of someone this young is going to pay for it."

"Emma…" She placed a hand on Emma's shoulder without thinking and squeezed, hoping it would be enough to calm her down. Because she understood where Emma was coming from. She had picked up on the barely discernible hitch in Emma's voice while she had been speaking. The focus on the boy's short crop of hair, and his facial features. He could've been a more grown up version of Henry, and it seized her own heart in a crushing hold to even consider the notion.

Regina felt a hand covering her own where it rested on the shoulder and looked up to see Emma looking at her, smiling faintly. "I know." Emma whispered quietly, holding onto Regina's hand for a moment longer and then giving it a squeeze. "Let's go find the horses."

**-x-x-x-**


	12. Chapter 12

**12.**

* * *

><p>"God," Emma exclaimed as they approached the ruins of what once had been a farmhouse. "I've never seen anything like this Regina. What the hell is causing this?!"<p>

She turned to find Regina staring straight ahead of her, eyes dark and unreadable, but Emma had noticed her fingers tightening the hold she had on Alastor's reins. It was enough to determine that she was just as disturbed by what she was seeing as Emma was herself.

"I don't know. But there doesn't seem to be any pattern to it, as if whoever is doing this doesn't care about what they are destroying."

Emma followed after Regina when she slowed down and they made a small circle around the rubble of the house. Behind the house was a stretch of farmlands, all of the crops having been crushed into the ground, leaving a huge indentation into the soil as far as she could see.

"Almost as if something crashed into the place and the force of it flattened anything in a few mile radius around it," Emma speculated out loud.

She still couldn't think of anything that was capable of doing this. Not at this size. And the more she saw, the more she leaned towards the theory that some kind of magic was responsible. But then she didn't understand why someone would carve such a random path of destruction throughout these lands. It didn't make any sense.

They had first seen the signs shortly after leaving the woods near the Chron river. The large swathes of trees flattened and crushed into the soil. And some newly created lake in the middle of the river shortly afterwards. Something big had seemingly crashed into the river, and pushed a lot of the terrain surrounding it downwards, and now there was a lake there. A lake with a lot of smaller pools of water scattered around it and Regina hadn't known what the purpose behind it had been either.

The hours after that had been filled with more of the same. As the lands became more open, they were also able to discern more of the destruction that had been wrought all around them. Though it had primarily consisted out of what seemed to be craters in the landscape at completely random intervals. But now that they travelled across the plains, it was easily visible how many there were. The sheer size of them had sent sparks of discomfort through her as she pondered what the hell was behind all this. And the apprehensiveness radiating from Regina hadn't helped with that.

At least, she thought as she dismounted and scuffed at the remains of a wheelbarrow with one of her boots, it seemed as if no one had been around the farm when disaster had struck. She looked towards the edge of the crater not too far from where she was standing, and couldn't help wondering why they were never able to find anything that hinted of what force was being used to cause this kind of damage.

"Think the people who lived here, somehow saw whatever did this coming?"

"Perhaps," Regina replied. Her attention was focused somewhere else however, and Emma followed her line of sight to the horizon.

"Smoke," Emma muttered, a lump settling in her throat upon realizing the implications behind it. From what they had seen throughout the day, she knew it couldn't be a coincidence. And there was the fact that the plume of smoke rising up to the sky ahead of them was coming from the direction of Greydrift.

Wordlessly, Emma walked back to where she had left Pyrois and mounted the horse again.

"When I suggested we'd go on this trip together, I never imagined this," she confessed when they were riding alongside each other again. She used her free hand to wrap the cloak tighter around her body. There had been a chilliness in the air for a while now and it only seemed to be getting worse the closer to the nightfall they got.

"I don't think this comes even close to what I had imagined would happen either," came the surprisingly honest response. It wasn't the way she had thought Regina to react, but when she glanced sideways to see the expression on Regina's face, there were enough emotions on display to pique her curiosity.

"What did you imagine?"

"A small detour to Holbeck to confirm a few peasants were making a commotion over nothing, before returning to the Castle. To...Henry," Regina continued after a small pause, her eyes glistening with withheld tears.

"I really miss him too," Emma murmured. Her throat was clogged and the words came out strained and barely perceivable. But the heartfelt smile which Regina gave her was enough of to ease the worst of the longing to see Henry soon as possible again.

Silence followed after that, and though Emma could feel Regina's gaze on her a few times, she didn't say anything. Not for a long time, and Emma didn't mind the silence so much. It didn't feel as loaded as it had once felt between them at least and it gave her some time to sort her own thoughts.

The plume of smoke turned out to a small cottage, torn to pieces, with some of the wood having caught fire. There was another cottage nearby, having undergone the same fate, and Emma noticed the crushed remains of a body in between the debris. Her stomach turned at the sight, and she was glad Regina caught her eyes for a long moment, silently conveying a soothing kind of calmness, before they continued onwards.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing dead bodies."

"It's not something you should get used to."

For a moment Emma wondered what Regina was thinking about. Though the way her eyes became unfocused and her jaw clenched made her think they weren't pleasant memories. Emma knew from the stories, and from the things Regina had told her herself, that she had seen much more death in general than she had. But while Regina appeared to be calm and collected on the outside, there had been a lot about her demeanour and the flickering in her eyes that gave her the impression Regina was just better at hiding how these things affected her.

And then a memory surfaced of them sitting in Regina's chambers in the Castle, late at night. She couldn't really remember how they stumbled onto that topic, or why. But what Emma was able to remember was the quivering of Regina's lips, the trembling of her hands, and the way her eyes had brimmed with tears that had eventually cascaded down her cheeks unchecked. She hadn't asked about Daniel again afterwards, though there had been a few times when Regina had mentioned his name in passing. Every time she had, there had always been something fragile that underlined her voice. A tangible spark of heart-rending ache that shimmered in her eyes, that Regina was never quite able to hide. It always made Emma wonder how deep the pain truly went. How much of the scar would never heal.

"Seems like we'll be heading into another storm," Regina suddenly spoke up.

"That time of the year and all," Emma muttered with a groan. She really wasn't looking forward to getting another cold shower so soon after the last one. "My hate for the springtime here is growing daily"

When Regina remained silent, she glanced over to find an thoughtful expression on her face, and the way Regina's eyebrows were knitting together as she peered at the dark clouds ahead of them made Emma frown in confusion.

"Something on your mind?"

"I'm not sure…" Regina trailed off, but her eyes kept tracing the brewing storm in the distance. "Something about those stormclouds…" They rode past a patch of trees which obscured their view of the horizon, and Emma felt Regina's gaze on her a moment later. "Though we'll reach Greydrift soon enough, so we might be able to take shelter there."

"Something tells me we'll be soaked from head to toe before we get to that point," Emma grumbled. "I mean you saw the sky over there, it was pitch-black." As she finished speaking, a crash of thunder rolled over them, blocking out the rest of what she had to say and Emma shot up a little in her saddle in surprise. "Great, and I suppose we can add thunder and lightning to make this even more fun than it already was," she remarked sarcastically.

They rode across a path leading up a small hill when there was more rumbling. Though it sounded different than before. As if it had been smothered by something. A lightning bolt cleaved across the sky just before they reached the top of the hill, and Emma's heart skipped a beat in response.

"Fuck," she cursed as she placed one of her hands across her chest. Not that it would help much with calming down the loud heartbeat that was thudding in her ears. "I really hate lightning."

The first few drops of rain started to fall down, and Emma muttered more expletives under her breath. She fumbled with the hood on her cloak when another lightning bolt struck. It illuminated the sky for just a split second. But it was enough for her to freeze, and for the hood to slip from her grasp again.

"Emma?" Regina sounded concerned and Emma caught the worried look cast her way from the corners of her eyes.

"I thought I…" Saw something, she finished in her mind. Something huge. A shape outlined by the piercing brightness of the lighting bolt, that filled her vision against the backdrop of the darkened skies. But it had only been a split second, and with her nerves being as frayed as they were, she chalked the sighting up to her imagination a moment later. "Never mind. I guess this damned lightning has me on edge."

The rain became a steady downpour, and she once more tugged at her hood. It was already slightly wet and the increasing winds weren't helping much with keeping it in position. Several times she had to wipe the water away from her face, and whenever the fabric hiked up too far on her forehead she had to tuck her head to her chest to avoid the stinging rain from cutting into her eyes.

"Do you hear that?"

She was about to ask what Regina meant when she picked up on it too. And then she felt it. A thudding sound reverberating across the ground. The first thought that sprung to mind was that it had to be an earthquake. But then she realized almost immediately that it could never have been that. Trying to desperately understand what the source of the sound was, she stood up on the stirrups and scanned the surrounding darkness. The night and the storm made it seem hopeless, until she looked up to realize that there was a solid shape against the sky, as if she was standing in a shadow of a large building.

"Is that Greydrift?" She asked, trying to figure out what she was looking at.

It appeared through the curtains of rain that obscured their view, but she wasn't able to judge the scale or distance of it in the darkness, nor what it was exactly. It was huge however, reminding her of one of the mountains they had travelled past while they had been on their way to Stonegate. She wondered if the city had any buildings that would explain what she was seeing, but even her parents Castle seemed to be dwarfed by the huge shape in the distance. Then again, she mused, the stormy weather and the fact they were still on a road that sloped downwards, might just be playing tricks on the mind.

"It shouldn't be." There was an anxious quality to Regina's voice that put Emma on edge. On edge and with her eyes glued to the shape that just seemed to get bigger and bigger. She wished she would be able to see Regina's face, to determine what she was really thinking. But the rain and the wind made it impossible for her to do more than catch a few stolen glimpses of her as they rode onwards.

"It's not a castle either is it?" She rose her voice over the howling winds that rushed along her ears.

The answer when it came a few seconds later wasn't a surprise to her. A soft, barely perceivable 'no' which it didn't help with assuaging her worries. It only made her want to stop while they still could. Stop and turn their horses around, and race back home. Because she could feel it in her veins. A tension which was like a rising tide and with every second that passed, with every step the horses took forwards, it threatened to spill over. And she feared it. Feared what would happen when it eventually would consume her whole.

The sky was an ominous dark color now. A mixture of purple and black, with angry thunderclouds rolling out overhead. Their surroundings were cast into a shadowy darkness and Emma felt shivers run across her back that had nothing to do with the chilly liquid that was seeping into her cloak and clothes. The tension was unbearable. Thick and cloying, oppressive in its intensity. It felt like she couldn't breathe, and Emma recognised the feeling. The moments before something bad was about to happen.

That was when they both saw it. Because she knew Regina had seen it as well, judging from the shocked gasp that she heard even over all the other noises around her. Forked lightning, brilliant and hot, flashed through the darkened skies, revealing the colossal shape in front of them. And what remained of Greydrift.

"W-what is…" she stuttered out, immediately halting Pyrois in her tracks. It was massive, and motionless. Looking like a gigantic statue, the way it towered high above the city's ruins. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around the size of the thing as it loomed unmoving over the city which it apparently had reduced to rubble. The storm was waning, revealing more of the devastated landscape in front of them and Emma couldn't contain a horrified gasp.

The city was in ruins. Almost every structure flattened to the ground, with only rubble remaining. She could see parts of the road that she assumed lead to the main entrance to the city, with two craters a large distance apart, on either side of it. Most of the stone walls that had protected Greydrift were gone, but for a few parts still standing upright. They looked out of place now that there was no longer anything to protect; like jagged columns of stone, jutting up out of the ground. There were several fires, the bright light they exuded contrasting sharply with the darkness that covered the city like a smothering blanket. Plumes of thick smoke rose up everywhere, until they were swallowed up by the dark clouds hovering over the city.

Even from where they stood, Emma could now make out the shapes of people running around. Some ran along the fires, and their movements and the chaos reminded her of a disturbed ants nest. There was no order, no logic. Another lighting flash revealed more shapes moving along the road that lead to the northwest and towards the mountain ranges. Though she only saw dozens of people. Not hundreds like she would've expected, and she could feel something lodge in her throat with the thought of how many people had likely perished in the fallen city.

She turned to look at Regina, and let out a shuddering breath at the mixture of disbelief and utter horror that was etched across Regina's features.

"Death," Regina muttered softly, and Emma noticed how she was trembling imperceptibly. "That's what the Orcs called it. Death, Zhavarr Ochem. I didn't..." Her head shook, but her eyes remained focused on the ruins of Greydrift.

* * *

><p>"Do you know what it is?" Emma whispered quietly as they looked towards the ruined city and the creature, which had been standing motionless over it through the impending nightfall. She turned to face Regina, who also seemed like a statue, raindrops rolling down her hair and onto her cheeks.<p>

She hadn't expected Regina rushing off on her horse like that. But it had forced Emma to immediately follow after her, until they reached a small hill. Small, but also tall enough for them to get a better view of the ruined city. Even with the night falling, she was still able to see far too much of the destruction that had been wrought. And the chaos was still on-going. Every now and then she saw some shapes moving around, illuminated as they were by the fires that still raged throughout the remains of the city.

It gave her a renewed sense of urgency. There were people out there that needed their help, and every second they stood here, felt like a waste. Her eyes traced the contours of the motionless bulky shape that still stood tall over the city once more, and she could feel some of the earlier anxiety return. She desperately needed some answers.

"Regina?" Emma tried again, lifting her hand towards the other woman's shoulder, but then clenching it into a fist and lowering it back to her side. It was so quiet now, even the rain beating down on them seemed somehow muffled and Emma chewed on the inside of her cheek, feeling dizzy as she looked in front of her; the desolation of the scene carving itself sharply into her mind.

It was still growing darker, but she was relieved to find the rain slowing down to a trickle and what few stray beams of light from the sun remained, filtered through some of the cracks in the grey blanket of clouds covering all of the visible sky. It briefly illuminated some of the ruins of Greydrift. Enough for her to gasp anew at the sheer scale of destruction. Though she was distracted by movement at the edge of her vision. A small flock of birds took off from somewhere around the head of the creature and then it moved.

It was a barely perceivable motion and she would have missed it had her attention not been drawn directly to it, but nevertheless she let out an audible yelp and stumbled backwards. "Regina!" she called out frantically.

"I..I see it too," Regina murmured. The expression on her face something between stunned surprise and horrified. "We need to go," she continued before Emma was able to speak up again. She didn't even wait for any reply but immediately ran of to where Alastor was grazing.

Though when she turned, Emma found the horse had actually stopped grazing. Alastor's ears were pinned back to her head, and her tail was tucked down. Despite not knowing as much about horses as Regina did, she did recognise Alastor showing all the symptoms of being frightened of something.

She knew Regina had noticed too, when the other woman's head turned away sharply from the direction of the horse and towards the creature in the distance.

"We should've gone sooner," Emma spoke up, even as she reached Pyrois and took the mare's reins. Her own horse also seemed skittish, eyes huge and bulging, and ears pressed back the same way Alastor's were. "I don't know why the hell we rode up this damned hill, we'll never be able to make it down there in time to help those people now."

"We're not going to help them."

"Excuse me?!" Emma bit out on an angry tone. "We can't just…" A loud thump reverberating across the terrain interrupted her, and she could feel the reverberations in her bones. Her head spun around rapidly, just in time to see the creature move another of it's pillar-like legs and put it down on top of some walls and structures that had still been standing upright. A shocked gasp escaped her, and she stared at the huge clouds of debris and dust that had been kicked up as it moved.

It seemed even bigger now that it had turned around. But at the same time its immense size made it impossible for her to distinguish any details from where they were standing. What she was able to see reminded her of hilly terrain, dotted by jagged boulders and weather worn sharp outlines. Massive serrated structures were littered along its back, and Emma wondered if it was the thing's spine, though from this distance it could've easily been mistaken for a mountain range.

She had no idea what to make of its head. There were no discernible features that she could see, no eyes and yet it felt as if she was being watched, measured, and she felt shivers travel down her spine at the thought.

Another thump, and she finally managed to rip her eyes away from the way it was thrashing around the already leveled town. "There are still people out there that need our help Regina, you can't be fucking serious about leaving them behind like that."

"Look at it, Emma," Regina practically yelled. She mounted her horse, but her eyes kept flicking from the creature to Emma, and back again. "All I…" she paused and shook her head, her eyes hardened like steel. "I came across a description in a book once. Its called a Tarrasque, but if it's anything like the book described, then what the Orcs called it, fits a lot better."

Another thump, and Emma saw Regina's barely perceptible flinch in response to it.

"We need to go," Regina repeated. "There's nothing we can do here."

"I'm not going to condemn a bunch of innocent people to their deaths." Emma couldn't contain the furious outburst, and her nails dug into the reins in her hands for a second before she swung herself onto Pyrois' back. "There has to be something we can do here."

"There isn't."

"You don't…" Emma halted mid-sentence when she heard an odd sound. As if all the air was being drawn somewhere. That's when she saw the creature, _Tarrasque_, its maw wide open, and everything that was in front of it getting sucked inwards. It reminded her of a cavernous depth, bottomless and black, and everything just vanished once it went inside its maw. It was as if a huge vortex was ripping trees, debris, half destroyed structures, and even entire houses from the ground and sucked them inwards.

Until there was nothing left but a barren strip of land, devoid of anything.

And Emma shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes as she thought of the scene they had seen in the woods earlier. The torn apart boats, the mangled remains of so many sailors, and the river that had looked as if something huge had trampled all over it. Now that she knew the cause behind that scene of destruction, she was unable to shake the imagery of the young man they had found; having bled out with no one there to help him either. No one there to comfort him as he laid dying.

"G-going there..is suicide. Those people are already dead, we can't save them, but we might be able to save others." Regina's head had turned away from the unfolding carnage, but Emma had heard the hitch in her voice, had noticed the shimmering in her eyes. She knew very well that it had likely been on Regina's mind as well, the thought that this could've been their Kingdom, their people. Families, children, loved ones, and there was nothing they could do to save any one of them.

Regina spurred on Alastor and rode towards the path they had taken to ascend the hill minutes prior.

"What the hell you suggest we do then?" Emma muttered out frustrated. She was still torn. Torn between doing something, anything, and leaving. Deep down, she knew Regina was right, but she couldn't get over the fact that she had seen people running down there; frantic, panicked, likely trying to find their missing loved ones, and now those very same people were being slaughtered without standing a chance.

"I don't know!"

It was yelled out on a frustrated tone, and Emma caught the look that Regina threw her over her shoulders. "I don't know. This creature was supposed to be just a myth, something from ages long past, I don't even remember half of what I read about it. I.." Her head dipped, then shot up right when there were more thumping sounds of the Tarrasque moving in the distance. "I have no idea if that thing can even be stopped."

"So what.."

"We need information."

"You said you read about it in a book, I don't…" Emma's teeth grinded. The creature was still moving and she had stopped turning around to look at it, afraid of whatever else she might see. Afraid of how she might never get rid of the memories of how it was killing hundreds, if not thousands of people, and without them being able to do anything to prevent it. "Where are we going?" She finally asked, as she followed after Regina. They were riding away from the creature, but she had no idea where they were heading to.

"That book I read was Rumple's."

And he was dead, which didn't exactly help clarify things for her. "What makes you think any of his books are still around?"

"I'm not thinking that at all. But there are more people who have lived for a long time and would have access to a lot of information."

She wanted to ask for more than that. Because a part of her needed, demanded reassurance. Needed to know that they would find a way to deal with this thing. And she wondered if this feeling had radiated off her, the way Regina twisted her head around and met her eyes. Conveyed things, answered questions she didn't know how to ask.

"Please trust me on this."

She could feel a pang of guilt at the pleading quality of Regina's voice. "It's not..that, I know you're.." she trailed off, while wiping away some wet strands of hair from her forehead. "Sorry, it's just this savior thing, that implies I'm supposed to save people. And right now I'm not doing any saving now am I? I'm abandoning them, and I can't.." She saw the way Regina opened her mouth to reply, the softening of Regina's eyes as they held her own, but she couldn't make herself to stay and listen.

She pulled on Pyrois' reins and spurred her along the path leading down from the hill and away from the ruined city, not waiting to see if Regina followed.

**-x-x-x-**


	13. Chapter 13

**13.**

* * *

><p>"You're straying off the course," Regina raised her voice as they rode along a small path. She had been content to give Emma her time and space considering what happened an hour ago, but they would waste precious time if Emma kept heading into this direction.<p>

"Well it would help if I knew where the hell we were going," came the angry response and Regina gnashed her teeth as Emma still refused to stop or slow down, so that they could adjust their course.

"Would you stop for a moment then so I can explain myself properly?" Regina growled out. "At the very least use one of the spells I've taught you to light your way, you'll get yourself or your horse killed if you continue like this."

She had cast her own globe of light, but since Emma was dead set on leading the way, one spell wasn't nearly enough to illuminate their surroundings properly. Not when the moon was obscured by clouds, and what little light managed to penetrate the obscuring darkness, was filtered by the web of branches hanging over their heads. She could conjure up another of the globes, but it would drain her energy even faster, and she refused to do so when Emma was perfectly capable of casting such simple spells herself.

Instead of an answer there was a soft cry, followed by a muttered string of expletives, after which Emma finally stopped Pyrois in her tracks. Regina sighed under her breath when she rode up to where Emma was standing, the globe of light illuminating her features, and the hand clutching one of her cheeks. There was a pained look in Emma's eyes and when the hand was withdrawn, it came away slightly bloody. Her entire cheek was stained red, and more blood was welling up from the large jagged cut that marred her face.

"Are you alright?" She recognised that it was a bit of a redundant question, but then again she didn't mean just the cut.

"Yeah, nothing a healing spell can't fix, right?" And Regina wished it was that easy. The look in Emma's eyes at least conveyed that she didn't believe it was easy either. For all that magic was able to do, some things it would never be able to fix.

Emma splayed her fingers across the cut once more and she could only watch on quietly as the wound closed up again, before disappearing completely. Only the smearing of red across her cheek and jaw and a few remaining droplets of blood which clung to her chin were signs of what had just happened.

"Now would you use your own spell to illuminate your way?" Regina muttered, unable to hide the spark of annoyance with this unneeded break in their journey. Normally she would never travel during the night, but this was far from a normal situation and she wanted to cross as much distance as she could. If possible, she'd even ride until the horses required a break.

"Fine." It only took a couple of seconds for Emma to think of the correct spell and the shining globe joined it's twin; suspended in the air a small distance in front of them.

Regina didn't wait for Emma to take off again, and pointed towards the fork in the road ahead of them, while spurring Alastor on. "We need to follow the northbound path from now on."

"And you're still just going to stay quiet about this mystery person we're going to pay a visit. Do you want me to take some guesses as to why this is?"

"There's nothing much I can tell you to add to what I've already explained to you. He's a lich, and he has lived for a long time."

"But without an explanation as to how you know him," Emma reiterated her earlier question and Regina sighed softly in response. She threw an irritated glance towards her companion, but Emma kept her eyes fixated on the road they were travelling; ducking once to avoid another low-hanging tree branch.

"I don't see how it's relevant to.."

"It's relevant when I have no fucking idea what I'm riding into right now, Regina!" Emma roared, her eyes shooting fire as she snapped her head Regina's way. "From everything I've gathered so far is that he won't exactly be happy to see you, and he's a lich, so excuse me for not particularly looking forward to this upcoming meeting. For all I know he'll try to kill us as soon as we enter his domain, or whatever the hell you call the place he lives at."

Instead of replying right away and possibly blowing her fuse because of her own mounting anger, Regina took a few deep steadying breaths. She also kept flicking her eyes from the road they were travelling to Emma riding along side her. And from what she could see, from what she was able to feel, the way Emma's frustration emanated from her in waves, this was just a diversion. Something for Emma to get upset about, to be able to blow off steam. But it wasn't what truly bothered her. It wasn't what made her grip the reins so harshly her knuckles had turned white. And it wasn't what put the forlorn look in Emma's eyes when they briefly met and locked with her own.

"He won't. But then, this isn't what truly bothers you, is it? You're upset with what happened at Greydrift."

"Of course I'm upset!" Emma nearly shouted, her face contorted in anger. "I keep thinking of that guy we found near that river, how he bled out. How someone could've possibly saved him, if only they had been there in time for him. And we just.." Emma's lips clamped shut for a moment, and her jaw squared. "I can't shake the image from my mind, okay? I saw people running around there, in those ruins, and you and I both know they're likely dead by now. So yes, I'm upset. I don't know how the hell you expect me to be okay with abandoning people like that."

There were far too many conflicting thoughts tumbling inside her head for her to answer right away. For her to find something appropriate to say. But when she eventually did say something a few seconds later, her voice was a lot softer than she had intended it to be. "I never said you had to be okay."

It was almost too soft, and she wondered if Emma had even heard her at all. But when green eyes shimmering with unshed tears flicked towards her, Regina knew that the words had reached Emma.

"I'm sorry."

"You shouldn't ever apologize for the way you feel about these sort of things, Emma." Because it was something she had so much admired in the other woman in the past. The empathy she was able to feel for other people. Even before the curse broke. It had been something that given her so much pause in the past. Sometimes, especially in moments like these when there was the swirling of clearly conflicting emotions in Emma's eyes, it still did.

"But I also shouldn't have taken out my frustrations on you like I did. I just..I felt powerless over there. And what we saw, Regina, I can't stop thinking about it."

The way Emma spoke of feeling powerless brought unwanted memories to Regina's mind, of a hand pulling a heart from a chest, how it had been crushed to dust in front of her very eyes and she had to close her eyes for a moment to banish the ghosts of her past.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about it either," she confessed after a moments hesitation.

No amount of attempting to distract herself had seemed to work. She had never seen anything like this, and the images wouldn't leave her alone; the utter destruction of a city like that by something that seemed nigh unstoppable.

And when Emma had brought up the young man they had found earlier, it reminded her once more of her longing to see Henry again. Of her need to protect him and she wished that she was able to spur Alastor on to ride even faster. Every moment they spent on the road, that thing would be getting closer to their Kingdom. To Henry. And even this plan she had wasn't much of a plan at all.

She swallowed harshly at the brief thought of not making it back in time. She desperately needed a distraction.

"Do you think this Krixus can give us some information on how to stop this thing?"

"I wish I could say I was sure of that." But she wasn't. The last time she had seen him was a long time ago after all. And they hadn't exactly parted on good terms. She had thought of some leverage to use against him, but even there there weren't any guarantees he would actually cooperate and give them some useful information.

There were other sources that came to mind, but they lived even further away. If they even lived at all. And she wished Rumpelstiltskin had still been alive. The only knowledge she had of the Tarrasque was from one of his books. And the only reason some of that had stuck with her at all was because of how it had been described. Rumple at least had laughed at her questions at the time. How it was a mythical being, long extinct. But the description had still intrigued her. A indestructible creature, that never tired and sowed chaos and destruction wherever it went. It had planted some seeds in her mind of what power it would grant her should she able to find it and somehow wrest control over it.

Though it seemed so foolishly naive now. In hindsight. After she had seen what it was capable of. Such a thing, she mused, should never be controlled by any party. Should never fall into the wrong hands and even if they were only able to render it inert by some sort of miracle, she vowed to find a way to disable it forever with whatever means necessary.

"Well, maybe he could at least tell us where the hell this thing came from in the first place." She turned her head and watched as Emma yawned tiredly next to her, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hands. "I assume you want to ride on throughout the night, right?"

"Falling asleep already are we?"

"Hmm," Emma hummed. "I didn't catch so much sleep the night before, and it's been a long day." A weary sigh followed. "Too damn long."

"If it would help keeping you awake, I could give you more details on my dealings with Krixus in the past. Or more information about liches in general."

"Yeah?" Emma perked up a little, and Regina mused it was worth it to see the tiniest of smiles playing around Emma's lips, even if it meant revealing things from a dark past, that she much rather kept a secret. "It might. I have no idea what to expect in the first place. How the hell am I to imagine a lich anyway? A living corpse?"

"Something like that.." Regina murmured as she pursed her lips. Her thoughts strayed to when she had last seen him, inhabiting some unfortunate young man's body, likely duped by being promised untold riches, and then having his spirit forcefully ripped away from his own body. Without being able to do anything about it. Even being as evil and uncaring as she was at the time, she had always tried to keep her encounters with Krixus to an absolute minimum. He had given her the creeps and as she opened her mouth to tell Emma about the first time she had met him, she tried not to think too much of what the lich had all been upto in the past few decades.

* * *

><p>She woke up disoriented. Disoriented and way too tired. Stifling a yawn behind her hand, Regina blinked and struggled to remember how the hell she had fallen asleep while still wearing all of her clothes. Not only that, but she could feel a breath hitting the back of her neck and a warm presence of someone lying behind her.<p>

All she could remember was how at some point she had stopped practically asleep Emma from sliding off her horse. She remembered hearing the whistling of birds and seeing the first signs of the sunrise as the sky became brighter. And then there was a gap after which she couldn't recall much, besides Emma shouting angrily at her while they had dismounted somewhere. Sleep must have claimed her shortly afterwards, because removing one's clothes was but a simple spell, and she loathed sleeping like this. Her clothes were wrinkled and dirt-streaked, and some of the fabric had dug into her side. She made a face when she rolled away and moved herself into a standing position. All of her muscles ached with the movement, and she winced as she stretched out her arms and legs. It had been a long time since she had pushed her body this much, and Regina scowled at the niggling thought at the back of of her head on how her age was starting to catch up with her.

"'Morning," came the mumbled greeting, and Regina turned to face a owlishly blinking Emma Swan, attempting to stand up. With the attempting part prevailing. "Ow," she cursed, "fuck. I can barely stand. Ugh, and I don't think there's any part of me right now that doesn't hurt."

She didn't say anything in reply right away. Mostly because she was still a tinge confused about the occurrences the previous night. But Emma's appearance wasn't helping matters much. Her sleep-drugged eyes and tousled hair made her oddly appealing to Regina, and she couldn't figure out why this was. Why she wanted to do nothing more in that moment but to walk up to Emma and run her fingers through her hair and press soft kisses to her lips as a way to wish her a good morning as well. She mused it had to be because both of their guards were down so much in this moment. And all of the events of the day before hadn't yet quite caught up to them. At least not to Emma. They were all rapidly spinning along her own mind, like a slideshow of images that she wished she could just erase and forget they ever happened.

But she couldn't. And it was with a soft sigh, while combing through her own hair with her fingers to get the worst of the knots out, that she walked up to the area where their horses were grazing.

"You want to…" Emma stopped mid-sentence and Regina picked up on the rustling of fabric behind her as she rummaged around in one of the packs tied to Alastor's back. "What are you doing?"

"Checking how much rations we have left."

"Not many, I checked last night." She turned to look at Emma briefly, noticing the knitting of eyebrows as Emma cocked her head. "Or at least I think I checked."

"I should be enough."

"Enough for what?" Emma questioned and Regina picked up on the underlying wariness in the way she spoke.

She chose to ignore it however, and quickly brushed her hair while checking the state of their horses.

"Regina?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you planning exactly?"

"I'm not sure what you are…"

"Cut the crap. I know when you're being this obtuse on purpose. I figured we could at least continue our talk from the night before, or well, early in the morning I suppose, while we have breakfast. But it's a bit hard to have a conversation with someone who's closing herself off like this. So mind telling me what's going on in that head of yours right now?"

"I don't remember where we left off," she said, though she deliberately avoided looking right at Emma as she spoke. "And it isn't like we have much time for that. We should head back on the road right away, especially since I can't remember where we stopped for the night and I need a moment to orientate myself."

"You can't be serious?" Emma hissed and Regina's body tensed for the argument that was about to follow. "We only slept for a few hours, Regina. We're almost out of food and we're running low on water as well. Not to mention the horses could also use some..."

"The horses will be just fine," Regina cut her off, "we don't have time for this dear."

"Yeah of course the horses will be just fine, until they collapse from exhaustion," came the sarcastic remark. Emma had walked up to where she was standing and her eyes were flashing green fire as she pointedly looked at Regina.

"I'm well aware of the.."

"I know, okay?" Emma's hand had extended and she was a loss of what to do when slightly calloused fingers curled themselves around her chin and tilted it upwards. She met Emma's intense gaze with reluctance, though she was surprised at the soft look in Emma's eyes; the clear concern painted across her features. "I get why you want to head back on the road right away. You think I don't realize what's at stake? I do. I do so much, Regina. All I can think of is what might happen if we wait too long, if we waste too much time. So I get it okay?"

"Emma.."

"No, just.." The fingers left her chin and moved upwards, stroked along her cheekbone and Regina let out a shuddery breath in response to the soft caress. "I'm guessing you don't even remember what happened when we got here. You almost stumbled into the freaking campfire because you were so exhausted and you were mumbling things that I couldn't understand."

Her mouth fell open at the description of what had transpired when they had made camp. Surely she would've remembered it happening that way? But then she thought of what she did remember; how Emma had yelled at her and suddenly it made more sense.

"Look," Emma murmured. The caresses stopped and Regina instantly missed the warmth from Emma's fingers as they fell away. Emma leaned back against one of the nearby trees and rubbed at her temples. "It's not going to help anyone if we stumble into Krixus' territory more dead than alive and we do still have the journey back to consider. All I'm asking is we take a little time to take care of the horses needs, as well as our own." She bit her lip then and her eyes centered on Regina's face. "You really worried me last night, you know? It was all I could do to put down the bedroll and guide you to lay down on it, you weren't responsive at all to anything I was asking you."

"I haven't..slept that well lately." It was all she was willing to confess on the matter.

"Yeah well," Emma said as she rolled her shoulders. "I get that. I was dead on my feet this morning and it still took me a while to fall asleep. That crap we saw yesterday didn't help." Emma's face darkened and her voice took on a distant quality as she spoke. "It's still on my mind. I wonder if it will ever not be."

"It will..fade away slightly with time," she murmured. Though her thoughts weren't all about the scene of destruction they had come across the day before. And some things, she thought, would never completely fade. Some things left scars that weren't visible. But they were still there; reminders of a dark past filled with regret.

She could feel Emma's gaze on her once more and it made her wonder if Emma had noticed it somehow, how troubled she really was. But other than looking at her for a moment longer, Emma didn't say anything, seemingly sensing she needed some time to process things and for that Regina was grateful.

"I think I saw a small river flowing not too far from that road we were following yesterday. Maybe if we backtracked a little we could find it again."

"Perhaps. I prefer riding onwards and finding another body of water, rather than losing precious time tracing back our steps."

"Yeah...I guess you're right." Emma put away their bedrolls and looked over to the small beaten path that Regina mused likely led back to the road they had been traversing. "I would rather keeping riding forward to."

She left the rest unspoken, but Regina was still able to see it in her eyes. How on the edge and worried Emma really was.

* * *

><p>They didn't backtrack in the end. Both agreeing finally that they just couldn't afford to waste too much time. It was a bit of a gamble, to continue while they were so low on supplies. Especially on a road that wasn't likely to be very well travelled. At least they only came across one person along the way, and while he spoke of a nearby pond, they weren't actually be able to find it.<p>

What they had found, while it was getting closer to nightfall again, were a few abandoned farms. One of them even had a functioning well, and it also provided them the much needed break to tend to the horses. The traveller had given them some preserved meat and fresh bread, enough to last another day at least. The water from the well proved to be clean enough for them to drink and they had both filled up their collection of water skins to the brim with it.

"Any idea why these were abandoned."

"No, but I think it might've happened a while ago. There should be a town nearby, I think if we would've followed the other road to the east we might've reached it eventually. It's possible they just simply abandoned it and moved to that town for some reason."

"Any other towns nearby?"

Emma's expression was telling as she ripped off a chunk of bread from the loaf in her hand. The question she didn't ask was whether or not Regina would've considered stopping at one if they hadn't been able to find any water along the way.

"A few. There's one a few miles ahead of where we are now. And yes, to answer your unspoken question, I would've pointed it out as somewhere to stop and buy supplies."

"I didn't mean to.." Emma blew out a breath, but then shook her head. "Well yeah, I guess it did cross my mind, asking you about this region and if there were any nearby towns. Also because I can't read the roadsigns over here," Emma muttered slightly under her breath, seemingly embarrassed about having to admit the fact. Then she sobered up, staring at the loaf of bread intently as if there answers to be found in it and Regina wondered what was on her mind.

"None of them know anything about what's going on."

"It's better that way."

"Is it though?"

"It's not heading this way. I do not believe there is a justified reason to incite mass panic."

"It still bothers me," Emma said, though she had resumed eating and she didn't speak up again until they took they saddled up their horses and went back on the road.

* * *

><p>"Can you feel that?"<p>

She at least hoped Emma was awake enough to notice the shift in air. The presence of a lot of gathered magic emanating from the swamplands ahead of them.

"Yeah. I wondered if it was just me. Feels like a lot of dark magic." Regina noticed Emma fidgeting with the reins as her eyes darted across the wall of dead trees that greeted them. "Gives me the creeps."

"The horses as well. We should leave them here before we proceed."

"Proceed...right," Emma murmured as she lowered herself from the horse and stretched out her limbs.

"Something on your mind dear?"

"Well, for starters, how do we get through that? Because it seems like it might be a painful experience to me."

Regina followed her line of sight to the muddy ground not too far away from where they were standing. There were trees sprouting up from the ground, as far as the eye could see. Though all of them were dead, leafless, their grey and white trunks presenting an ominous image against the darkening sky above them. Most of the branches seemed to be interlocked in an unnatural way, forming a seemingly impassible barrier. Though Regina wondered briefly, as she thought of meetings with Krixus in an age long past, if the barrier was meant to keep people out, or in.

She lowered herself from her own horse and tied it down next to Emma's. She was nearly done when she caught movement from the corners of her eyes and she sighed exasperatedly when she spied Emma moving forwards, her sword raised in front of her.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you."

"Why? Afraid I'll hurt a dead tree's feelings or something?" Emma joked and Regina rolled her eyes in response while making a small counter clockwise motion with her hand. It send a nearby stone flying towards one of the trees blocking their way. Though the stone never made impact with the tree, it was grasped out of the air in a lightning fast move by one of the branches. Emma gasped audibly and when she turned to face Regina there was a look of stunned disbelief residing on her face.

"That's why," she explained, not bothering to hide her aggravation over Emma's brashness. It wasn't the first time after all that Emma had settled for using blunt force instead of harnessing her innate magic. "We need to use a few spells to make our way through, but if we combine our magic it shouldn't be too hard."

Emma was still looking a little shell shocked as she placed her sword into the scabbard again and Regina noticed her apprehensiveness as they both moved closer to the wall of trees.

"I'll have to ask though, how did you know that lich was here of all places? I mean, you said you haven't seen him since you cast the initial curse so I'm just curious."

"Because I condemned him to this place."

"You really got creative with your enemies in the past, didn't you?" Emma flashed her a bemused smile before turning towards the trees with her hands on her hips.

Regina could feel Emma's eyes on her as she scanned the barrier in front of them for any possible weak points. "He was an ally actually."

A snort, then another shake of Emma's head, "of course he was."

She couldn't quite stop the curving of her own lips into a smile at the mixture of bewilderment and amusement that flashed across Emma's features. But then her eyes flicked back to the enchanted trees in front of them and she narrowed her eyes. A few of the crooked branches in front of them were dancing along with the winds, but she wasn't fooled in any way by how harmless they appeared to be.

"Follow my lead, please?" She said, her tone conveying she meant business. They needed to get this right, or risk losing more time because it would force them to resort to a different approach.

"You want to create a barrier between us and the trees as well?" Emma asked, even as she stretched out her hands in front of her, her eyes following Regina's every movement.

"Yes. I think the best idea would be for me to create a small passage while you interfere with the enchantment long enough for us to pass through."

"Right, I can do that."

She started up her own spell a moment later, focusing on creating an opening in the protective barriers. In the back of her mind there was a small bit of doubt on whether or not this would be the right approach. Even with how little time this would take them, it would still be enough for their host to be alarmed by their presence. And she had no idea how he would respond, nor what other spells or traps might be lying in wait for them at the other side of the barrier. He did have decades to fortify his position and Regina squared her jaw at the thought that she had been the one to give him the opportunity to do so. Back then however, she had still been reluctant to get rid of him permanently. After all, he was immortal in a way and she had been contemplating the possibility of swaying him back to her side, should it be necessary come whatever future laid ahead of her. Though she had all but forgotten about him after she had cast the dark curse.

As she stretched her hand out to let loose the first burst of magic on the trees in front of them, the thought crossed her mind that it wasn't very likely he had forgotten about her.

The trees parted slowly, with an eerie creaking noise, swinging to the sides and creating a narrow passageway for them to pass. She was relieved to find Emma fully focused on her own task and they made their way through within minutes.

The area in front of them was overgrown completely and Regina couldn't help her jaw from dropping slightly in surprise. Grass and shrubbery sprouted up from the swamp-like ground, high enough to reach past their knees. Right in front of them there was a small pond filled with foul looking dark liquid. A few gnarly trees grew around the pond, their branches extending well over most of the pond, almost as if they were protecting it.

"Yeah, this doesn't look creepy at all or anything. Why can't we ever visit a nice place, or at least something that doesn't look like a scene straight out of a cliche horror movie?" Emma grumbled, her eyes seemingly fixated on the crop of trees near the pond.

"I don't think it's actually supposed to look like this," Regina said on a careful tone. Her eyes continued to dart around their surroundings. She had expected Krixus to make a move by now after all. The fact that he hadn't worried her more than she wanted to let on.

"What do you mean?"

"Something's...off." Looking at the ground to ascertain she wouldn't step into some kind of sinkhole, Regina slowly made her way around the pond, knowing without looking that Emma was following closely behind her. "All of this," she murmured as she curved one of her hands in a circle to point out their surroundings, "it should've been more tended to. But it almost looks…"

"Abandoned?"

"Yes."

It did give her too much thoughts to consider. What if Krixus had moved somewhere else at some point? Escaped the bonds that bound him to this territory. But at the same time she could still feel his presence. It wasn't very strong, just the stirrings of something dark and oppressive that clung to the air. Every breath they took left behind the bitter aftertaste of sulphur, hinting at the fact that the lich had to be somewhere nearby still.

"Is that.." One of Emma's hands flew to her sword even as she moved herself into a defensive position and Regina followed her line of sight. "Looks like some building to me at least," Emma continued, then she frowned and Regina clenched and unclenched her hands, feeling just as on edge as Emma was.

"Or what's left of it."

"And he's in there," Regina confirmed Emma's unspoken question. "But his magic signature is faint." Too faint. She looked over the stone structure in front of them, one side of it having collapsed inwards. It was completely overgrown with green-yellow mosses and ivy and looked far from habitable anymore. If she would have to take a guess it looked like it had been abandoned for decades and it made her wonder what might have happened to the lich itself.

"Do you want to go…"

Regina conjured up a fireball in one of her hands before Emma could finish her question.

"I guess that's a yes then. Lead the way."

She was grateful when Emma didn't even hesitate this time around and cast a few spells to help clear a way inside. There had been a lot of rubble and stone blocking what she had assumed used to be the entrance into the two story building. From what she could see, the interior of the ruined house wasn't faring much better than the outside. Though she could now feel Krixus' presence even stronger and it made her heartbeat accelerate.

Sweat beads were clearly visible on Emma's face as she turned to face Regina after she had moved a particularly large wooden beam aside and she was glad they had opted to not wear their cloaks after they had woken up earlier on the day. It had been a little warmer than the previous week and Regina was glad for the change in temperature. Though she did realize, when she took in the clearly visible bags beneath Emma's eyes, that it wasn't so much the heat, but how tired and drained Emma was that made her movements so sluggish.

"I'm good, just a little winded," Emma said and Regina wondered if she had been that obvious with her concern. Though she knew that these past two days, ever since the discovery of the Tarrasque, had most likely been equally hard on them both.

The fireball in her hand illuminated the destroyed interior of the building and Regina sucked in a breath as her eyes settled on what remained of what she assumed had once been a shelf filled with books. Now though, only some rotting wood and torn papers remained. There were a few readable words, but most of the books had been gnawed on by insects and were destroyed otherwise by prolonged exposure to the elements. Glass shards were strewn everywhere and there was a pile of stones and sand covering most of the collapsed hallway. Light filtered in through an opening between two large stone slabs half tilted inwards on their sides. Everything that had been resting on the floor above them, had fallen down and there was a mess of half rotted wooden objects and metallic devices strewn around the ground in front of them.

"I can sense something over there," Emma murmured, pointing towards the back of the room they had just entered. A few beams of light illuminated the overgrown back wall and there was a large object just in front of it, though Regina wasn't able to make out what it was from where they were standing.

"I can sense you as well. My my, what a surprise," came the scratchy sound from everywhere around them. It instantly made Regina do a half turn to find the origin of the sound, her heart clattering wildly in her chest when she couldn't find anything.

"Show yourself," Regina shouted, a sneer on her face and the fireball roaring as she increased its size.

"I don't see anyone," Emma murmured. She had one of her own hands raised, presumably to cast a spell as well should something attempt to attack them.

Regina shivered a little, noticing how the air had turned colder. Icily cold in fact; her breath was starting to fog up in the air. The fireball remained unaffected and it was a welcome source of warmth.

"Come to finally finish the job? I'm afraid you're a bit too late for that, Your Majesty." The voice was rough, as if it hadn't been used in ages and it still sounded as if it came from everywhere. "Though I would've loved to see you squirm as I used one of my spells on you to bind your body to my domain. I would've loved to hear you beg as I slowly squeezed the very life out of you. Bit by agonizing bit." The disembodied voice had taken on a more frantic quality. Frantic and seething and Regina's hairs stood on end as she continued to spin around to find the lich's hiding place.

"Are you going to continue taunting us all day? Because I'm falling asleep here." Emma said out loud.

Only silence followed however. And Regina noticed how one of Emma's hands settled on the hilt of her sword, with the other still extended in front of her as she slowly and cautiously walked towards the back of the room. Regina contemplated following after her, but her attention had been drawn to the ruined books lying at her feet. Though she mused bitterly, that even if there had been something of use in those very same books, that information was all but lost now.

A gasp made her flick her eyes to where Emma was standing. "Regina.."

"Why are you here?!" The voice demanded to know. It was louder, booming as it echoed around the collapsed building.

"Oh…" Regina murmured as she took notice of what had caught Emma's attention. A pile of bones and rags, next to the weather-worn remains of a hard wooden throne. There was a skull lying slightly to the side of the pile, its glowing green eyes staring up at them with an intensity that seared right into her.

"Regina?"

She blinked once, then extinguished the fireball in her hand. "I think we don't need to worry much about any possible danger anymore." Then she smirked, staring right at the green eyes which, if possible, glowed even brighter than before. "I suppose this is only fitting, considering your obsession with immortality and all, wouldn't you say my dear Krixus?"

There was no answer, but Regina noticed the shift in the atmosphere. The winds picked up slightly, blowing through the ramshackled interior, putting her on edge despite knowing there was nothing the lich could do while he was trapped in his current form.

"Uhm, so..that's him?" Emma queried, her eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"In a way. As long as his phylactery remains intact he cannot die. But since it seems he wasn't able to find another vessel to house his essence in time, he'll be confined to the remains of his last body."

"Until…?"

"The bones waste away. He'll be fully bound to his phylactery until someone stumbles on it and he can manipulate them into becoming a host for him."

"Which kills that certain someone in turn, right?" Emma asked, her lips drawn into a hard line as she turned to face Regina.

"Well it would be a bit cramped in there if I allowed their own essence to stay as well. So I'm sure you'll understand my need to take over their bodies all by myself," came the disembodied response.

Emma's mouth opened, then closed again and Regina wondered what she had been meaning to say before she seemingly thought better of it.

"I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to come to find someone gullible enough to do so," Regina spoke up. "But that isn't why were here."

"Whatever it is you want, I would think it to be obvious enough that I'm not remotely interested in even hearing about it."

"Unless it's something that would intrigue even you." She exchanged a quick reassuring look with Emma before hunching down right in front of the glowing skull. "After all, it would be hard for you to find someone to house your spirit, when there is no one remaining to do so."

"Resorting to riddles now? I would've thought that to be more of the Dark One's forte."

She hoped he didn't notice the slight wince in response to the mention of Rumple. It would lead to more questions, a distraction she couldn't really use right now. They had already wasted enough time as it was.

"Ever heard of a Tarrasque?" She came straight to the point.

"You came all the way here, after all these years, to discuss a mythical creature?" It wasn't quite a laugh, but it sounded all the same, a scratching sound carried by the winds. "It hasn't been seen in hundreds of years and you're what...trying to tell me it somehow mysteriously reappeared after so long?"

"Yes," she answered simply.

"What would we have to gain by lying about something like this," Emma chimed in and they could both hear the winds swirl around, the silence stretching on as if the lich was contemplating what they just told him.

"It has been wreaking havoc along these lands for at least a week, possibly more. We would just like some information on how to deal with it."

"And what would I gain in return?" Krixus asked, even with his voice disembodied as it was, Regina swore he sounded intrigued by what they were telling him.

"We could leave you alone for the time being," Regina stated, a soft chuckle accompanying her words. It was an outright lie of course. Even if he gave them useful information, there was no doubt in her mind she would return here one day and make sure he wouldn't ever be able to cause harm to anyone again.

"That's not much of an offer at all now is it."

"We could turn this entire place upside down with magic until we find your phylactery, Krixus, and don't think for a moment that we wouldn't," she bluffed.

More silence and Regina swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat as her worries about overplaying her hand increased with every second that ticked away.

"Fine. Though I doubt anything I could tell you would be of any use, but at least it will be a welcome distraction from haunting this place."

"Where is it from? I mean.." Emma asked before Regina was even able to formulate a question in her mind and she shot a quick warning look her way while shaking her head disapprovingly.

"I actually don't know. I've heard rumors of it a few hundred years ago. It rampaged around the lands back then as well, before it became inert again. I looked for some information of my own, but most of it came from an ancient book. It told stories of an age long past, of wars fought between Gods."

Krixus stopped then and Regina wondered if more would follow. She was just about to speak up when he continued again. "If the book is to be believed the Tarrasque was a weapon. A servant of a forgotten God. And it, in turn, was forgotten as well."

"Until waking up and destroying towns for no good reason," Emma stated bitterly, as she scuffed her boot against some shards of glass.

"Entire civilisations in the past. But the Tarrasque doesn't know that. It doesn't abide by the same rules as we do. It sleeps, wakes up and destroys. That's all it was programmed to do and that's all it will continue to do."

"A perfect killing machine," Regina spoke up as she stood up again. How she had ever thought something like this creature would be a suitable weapon if she managed to wrest control over it, was beyond her now.

"How do we stop it?" She finally asked.

"You can't."

**-x-x-x-**


	14. Chapter 14

**14.**

* * *

><p>"You couldn't have known."<p>

She caught the quick flicking of eyes her way, but then Regina went back to staring at the road ahead of them and brooding in the silent state as she had been ever since they had left Krixus' domain.

So Emma sighed. Once and deeply. Because she was desperately fumbling for some way to get Regina to open up to her. Though she recognised why Regina was doing this. Why she was so adamant on internalising her feelings on the matter. Why she took all the blame of their failure completely onto herself. It had been her idea to go see the lich in the first place after all. But despite the discouraging news and despite the way her heart had sunk into her chest like a stone at the thought of being completely powerless against the disaster that might befall their kingdom, she couldn't find it in herself to blame Regina. Especially since she had had plenty of time to let everything sink in. And the idea to gain more information had been a much better one than to simply rush into danger and get themselves killed.

Even with the thoughts running through her mind now, that there wasn't any way to stop the Tarrasque, their trip hadn't been completely for nothing. They knew more than they had before and even if it wasn't what they had been after, it still counted as a win in her book. She just had no idea how to also convince Regina of that fact.

"It wasn't a waste of time either, no matter what you think."

"Wasn't it?" Regina finally replied, the expression on face unreadable.

She looked tired and Emma wondered why she hadn't paid so much attention to that before. But then they had been in a hurry and there had been so much things occupying both of their minds, everything else had been an afterthought. She couldn't recall Regina looking this way before however. This distraught, despite how much she was attempting to hide it. Attempting being the key word because she seemed even too tired to try and errect the normal facades she hid behind.

"We got some information that might help, it's more than we had before."

"And we lost precious time because I thought we might find a way to actually stop this thing."

It came out bitterly and Emma noticed how Regina's lips curled into a sneer. But it wasn't directed at her this time around. It was directed at Regina herself and something tugged at her heart at that realization.

"At least we know that it will stop all by itself." They just had to think of a way to keep it occupied, to keep it from making even more victims, until it did. And Emma was at a complete loss of how to do so.

"But we don't know when," Regina replied, her eyes finally seeking out Emma's own for a moment. "And we can't do anything to stop it, should it head to our Kingdom next. We wasted days chasing a pipedream while I should've known better. If we had just headed back to the castle right away we might've been there by now, we could've…"

Her voice trailed off and Emma watched on helplessly as Regina withdrew from her again, eyes unfocused and leaking the anguish that had accentuated every spoken word.

"If we had just headed back we wouldn't have known that magic will help with gaining its attention," Emma cut in, without dwelling on how Regina would've likely finished the sentence. Ever since Krixus had revealed that little detail it had been simmering away in the back of her mind. The hints of a plan that she hadn't yet fully formed into something concrete. But at the very least it gave them something to work with.

Silence, then a soft sigh and the turn of a head. "I had hoped for something more and I'm not…" Regina eyes shimmered with emotion as she turned to face Emma again, her hands clutching onto the reins as if she needed something to anchor herself with. "I suppose I'm not really used to this feeling of helplessness. I've always had magic I could turn to, Emma, to solve my every problem. The idea that there's nothing we can do, it's been very difficult for me to come to terms with. It still is."

"We could...distract it," Emma suggested after a few seconds had passed. "I mean…" she fidgeted a little in the saddle. "Lead it somewhere it can't do much harm, by throwing some spells at it or something." It felt like a foolish suggestion and Emma could feel her cheeks heat with embarrassment when instead of an answer, all she got in return was silence.

"Forget what I ju..."

"No, actually," Regina interrupted her, a thoughtful expression on her face. "It isn't a bad suggestion at all in fact. Something like that has been on my mind, but I was only considering a more permanent solution. Perhaps that was the wrong way to approach it however. Perhaps we should consider something more temporary."

"I have no idea what you just said." She was in fact completely perplexed by what Regina had attempted to explain to her. A few things had stuck with her, but overall, she hadn't quite been able to follow Regina's thought process.

"A distraction," Regine repeated, the corners of her mouth curving upwards into something that wasn't quite a smile, but still made an effervescent warmth bloom in Emma's chest all the same.

Her lips quirked into a smile of her own and in that moment she couldn't care less how much she was giving away with it. How much the bone deep tiredness she felt made it impossible to stop everything she was feeling from showing so clearly across her features. It didn't matter that much anymore anyway, she thought as her eyes darted from Regina's twinkling eyes to the scar on her upper lip. After everything that had happened during their journey together, she had become increasingly more confident that Regina felt the same way.

"It might be all we need as a matter of fact. If we could gain its attention long enough, we could lead it to the coast." A frown creased her brows and Emma swore she could practically hear the wheels grinding away in her head. "If it moves as slow as it did before, we would still have enough time to do so. We could lead it into a half circle to the coast and keep enough distance to stay ahead of it. And we would have several days then to get to the Kingdom and help evacuate people somewhere else."

"Until it becomes inert again," Emma finished for her.

She got a nod and a smile in response and then a long look that she wasn't quite able to decipher. But there was something loving about it, something that made her unable to pull away and when Regina's hand reached out and briefly touched her arm, her smile grew.

"We'll figure it out you know?" Emma spoke up once the hand fell away again. The warmth lingered however and her smile never wavered.

"We will."

It was enough of a hopeful thought to cling to the rest of the day.

* * *

><p>"Should've known the clear weather up until now was too good to be true," Emma grumbled as she eyed the gathering storm clouds warily. They had camped next to the road the night before and had been making good progress today as well, up until now and she muttered out some expletives under her breath at the sound of a thunderclap in the distance.<p>

"We'll have to find some shelter to wait out that storm." Regina's eyes kept flicking towards the darkening sky above them as well and there was an uncharacteristic look of worry etched across her face. "It doesn't look like it we might be able to ride through it." And there was the unspoken agreement between them that they wouldn't risk it either.

"So stop here and magic up something?" Emma suggested, already surveying their surroundings for a suitable place to make camp.

"We should be close to the abandoned farm we've visited before, if I remember correctly. We passed this signpost shortly after we left again." Regina looked up at the sky again, tugging at the edges of her cloak. "But we might not make it on time."

Emma toyed a little with her own cloak, draping the hood across her head. The temperature was dropping rapidly and she wasn't looking forward to getting soaked once more. But then she remembered the interior of the abandoned farm. It would be enough to protect them from the elements and she wished nothing more than to have a roof above her head.

Even if it meant getting an impromptu shower before they reached the place.

"I think we should try at least."

Regina's only response was a nod and for her to spur on Alastor to ride faster.

* * *

><p>"I thought you said you didn't like lightning?"<p>

Her breath hitched in surprise, not having expected Regina to be awake, considering how tired she had seemed when they had retired for the night. A quick glance across her shoulder revealed Regina standing not too far behind her. The light cast by the duo of candles they had lit in the small room illuminated most of her features. Emma's eyes briefly lingered on Regina's fingers as they attempted to straighten out her sleep mussed hair, the other hand covering her mouth as she stifled a yawn behind it.

"I actually enjoy watching lightning storms, though usually only when I'm somewhere safe. I guess being outside and exposed makes me feel as if I could get fried on the spot at any moment."

She enjoyed the sound of raindrops tapping against the roof and walls of the house, it somehow gave her a sense of peaceful tranquility. A bolt of lightning tore across the skies just then, bathing the entire room into a flash of bright light for a split second and Emma smiled before turning her head to glance at Regina once more.

"Did I wake you up?"

They were the same words she had used before, Emma realized barely a second after she had uttered them. Though the situation was different. Especially with the air mostly cleared between them. It still felt as if some of the tension remained however, but it was different now. Because she swore there was something smoldering about the way Regina's glittering dark eyes traced across her form.

"No, not exactly," Regina replied and walked closer towards the window through which Emma was watching the storm. "I might've dozed off for a little while, but sleep seems to elude me."

"Yeah me too I guess. You want to talk about it?"

"I don't want to talk at all."

Before she could turn around to ask what Regina meant with that vague sentence, Emma felt soft lips pressing lightly onto her shoulder for just a moment and she could swear she felt the tip of a tongue against her skin before they pulled away

"Oh…"

"I think we've talked enough, don't you think?"

She swallowed thickly, watching the mirrored images in the reflection of the window, her eyes fixated on how Regina's fingers slid along the strap of her shirt. Heat suffused her cheeks at the feel of gentle caresses across her skin, the soft puffs of breath against the back of her neck. She could feel Regina step even closer and the mouth was back, pressing a series of soft kisses along the exposed skin of her shoulder and neck. The fingers glided downwards, taking the strap along with them until it was slowly pulled across her shoulder.

"Regina?" She finally whispered, though it was more of a breathy exhale. And she wondered if it was possible to ask a thousand questions just by uttering one's name.

"If there's anything you've taught me after all these years we've known each other, it's living in the moment, Emma."

Her heart thudded away in her chest as Emma finally turned around to face Regina. "Pretty sure I've taught you a lot more," she murmured, while her eyes flicked from Regina's eyes to her lips.

"Pretty sure I can teach you a few more things too," she spoke up, with a courage she didn't think she possessed in that moment. A grin creeped up along the corners of her mouth just before she leaned in for a first gentle kiss.

"Feeling that confident are we?" Regina stated, her voice slightly croaky and breathless when they broke the kiss. Her expression became more serious after a moment however even as her hand cupped one of Emma's cheeks and she was powerless to resist the urge to nuzzle into it. "I want to feel alive, Emma, even if it's only for a moment."

There were a million things Emma felt she said, even if the words remained unspoken. But she still understood them. The need to be here, in this moment, in their little cocoon away from the outside world. Away from everything that still awaited them.

The hand on her shoulder moved upwards, settling into her hair, while Regina's lips brushed against Emma's own again and her eyes fluttered closed in response. A few quick flicks of a tongue and she opened her mouth, allowed Regina to deepen the kiss and she moaned softly in response.

She felt how she was steered towards their bed rolls, laid out side by side in the middle of the room. Breaking away from the kiss, they removed what few clothes they had worn and afterwards Emma immediately went in for more kisses, more nips along Regina's lower lip. One of her hands settled in the nape of Regina's neck, the other weaved into her hair and she used the grip she had to tilt Regina's head to the side to lave the skin along her jaw and throat with wet flicks of her tongue.

Just as she wanted to push Regina onto the bed roll, there was a sharp tug on her arm and before she knew it their roles were reversed. A gentle nudge along her waist and she allowed herself to fall down onto the bed roll, Regina followed after her, her knees settling on either side of Emma's hips.

"Someone...likes to be on top," Emma mumbled as one of Regina's fingers started to tug and roll one of her nipples and her mouth descended on the other one, suckling gently.

"Is that a complaint?" Regina asked, her eyes shimmering in the candlelight, half obscured by a curtain of dark hair. The look that passed across her features could only be described as predatory and Emma's breath hitched in her throat when Regina's tongue extended to flick along her hardened nipple.

"Fuck if I know," Emma murmured, one of her hands digging into Regina's dark tresses, making sure she wouldn't waver from her position. "Just don't stop."

The only response came in the form of a wicked little smile, before one of Regina's hands descended. She was watched then, Regina's eyes holding her own captive in an intense look that made her even wetter than before. Regina's gaze bore into her, while some of her fingers slid along soaked curls before slipping across Emma's slit.

"Emma…" Her name was said so softly the sound was barely there at all. So softly and almost reverently and all Emma wanted to do was close her eyes because she felt so much. And she felt so exposed like this, everything she was, laid bare before the woman hovering over her.

She wondered if it was readable in her eyes somehow, because she found Regina smiling sweetly at her, leaning in for more kisses. Then she felt the tips of two fingers pause at her entrance before they slowly slipped inside of her and one of her hands curled around Regina's arm as she moaned loudly.

"Fuck.." she cursed again as the fingers slowly started to pick up their pace, setting a rhythm that made her gasp in pleasure. Regina's thumb circled around her clitoris and Emma whimpered her name almost desperately, her back arching off the bed roll in response. Lips sucked and nipped a path across her shoulder, making stuttered moans and gasps well up from her throat.

She was panting, gulping in her breaths, the heat inside her belly coiling towards her inevitable release. Vaguely, in between the heady kisses and bites along her collarbone, she was aware of Regina whispering her name against her skin. Then the fingers curled inwards and the strokes got harder, faster and Emma tossed her head back once, twice, the flicks against her clitoris finally sending her careening off the edge. Her back arched again, bowing as her body was seizing along with her release and she keened out Regina's name.

Her eyes were still closed as she twitched with the aftershocks of her orgasm. Soft kisses were peppered across her eyelids and she forced her lips into a lazy smile, feeling boneless and sated.

"I thought you said you were going to teach me a thing or two more, dear."

And Emma chuckled lightly, one of her eyes cracking open as she flashed a bemused smile Regina's way. "I'll have you kno.." The rest of her sentence was left hanging, both of her eyes popping open and widening when she spied Regina licking the arousal off her wet fingers while smirking at her lasciviously.

Almost immediately her hand shot out and clutched onto one of Regina's cheeks, capturing her lips into a searing kiss. Her other hand travelled downwards, to where Regina had been slowly, likely unconsciously, rolling her hips against Emma's stomach. There was a smear of wetness across her skin and Emma groaned when her fingers slipped across Regina's sex.

"So wet," she muttered as she wasted no time in pushing one then two fingers inside of the other woman.

"I'm..ah," Regina's eyes had slipped closed and her head lowered, her forehead resting against Emma's own as she let out wheezing little gasps. It sent sparks of pleasure to her own clitoris to hear Regina slowly becoming undone and Emma sped up her thrusts.

The angle was all wrong and slightly awkward but Emma found she didn't care, especially when Regina moved her hips along with her thrusts, impaling herself onto Emma's fingers again and again. She also liked seeing Regina this way; one of her hands clutching onto Emma's shoulders, her nails scoring red lines across her skins and the way her face was contorted into pleasure.

"I'm...close," Regina whimpered out, leaning down to capture a kiss or two in between sucking in her breaths.

Regina worked herself more upright, one of her hands grasping onto the fabric of the bed roll, as she rode Emma's fingers. Her eyes were squeezed shut and Emma couldn't stop looking at her. Wished that she was able to stop time right there and then, because she didn't think Regina could ever look more beautiful than in that moment, her body tensing up as she neared her release. She felt fluttering along her fingers and she held onto one of Regina's hips, pushing her harder against Emma's hand.

A shrill cry and Regina's head was thrown back and Emma didn't stop her thrusting, still going deep and hard and pushing Regina into another small orgasm on the heels of the first. She slowed down then, eventually slipping her fingers out, after sliding gently along her clitoris, grinning at the twitch of Regina's stomach muscles as she did so.

Regina slumped down on top of her, one of her hands braced on Emma's shoulders as she laid there panting, her features completely relaxed. And Emma couldn't quite resist the temptation, capturing Regina's chin with one of her hands and bringing her in for some gentle kisses. Her other hand skimmed across Regina's body, playing along her skin and exploring without hurry.

"Hmm," Regina murmured.

"I think I'll take that as a compliment," Emma remarked cheekily. She placed a kiss on Regina's nose and watched transfixed as Regina's eyes opened to observe her.

She exerted some pressure on Regina's ass, pushing her more firmer against Emma's body and she couldn't quite help the soft moan in response. There was some nice pressure against her clitoris and she had to tamp down on the urge to grind against Regina's body, she still had a point to prove after all.

"What are you doing?" Regina asked, her voice husky.

She had apparently noticed Emma's hands settling on her hips, but instead of giving her an answer Emma flipped them over, a victorious smug smirk on her face as she stared down at Regina.

"I would think that to be obvious," Emma said as she lowered herself down and flicked one of Regina's nipples with her tongue.

"What makes you..ah, think I'll let you stay on top."

"Are you complaining?" Emma asked, mimicking Regina's question earlier, her hand already dipping lower until she found Regina's wetness. She played along Regina's slit, before circling her clitoris with teasingly soft pressure.

"No," Regina answered on a gasp, her eyes hooded and glazed over. "I'm not complaining at all."

"Good," Emma murmured, just before she slid downwards across Regina's body and replaced her fingers with her tongue. "Because I'm far from done with you."

* * *

><p>"You're quiet," Emma observed as they tended to their horses.<p>

They had both scavenged the area for food when the first rays of sunlight announced the breaking of a new day. But Regina hadn't said much since she had returned with some edible fruits and berries.

"There's a lot on my mind," Regina said in a gentle tone and there was something apologetic in the glance she flashed Emma's way.

"I know. I can't stop thinking about it either. Even with everything we…" She trailed off and sighed, having finished saddling Pyrois. "If it doesn't work, we'll have to keep going. We'll have to keep riding."

She didn't say anything else, all the worst-case scenarios that flew through her head made her too on edge to say anything else. So lost in thought she was, she hadn't noticed Regina drawing closer. Not until she felt hands envelop her face and bring her in for a long soft kiss.

When it broke, she stared into Regina's eyes with a mixture of surprise and happiness. "What was that for?"

"A promise that we'll talk about this later."

_This_, Emma thought, though she didn't say the word out loud. Her eyes traced Regina's form as she sauntered away to grab their packs. _This_, she was pretty sure, was her having fallen in love with Regina Mills and having no idea when it had all started.

* * *

><p>"Looters," Regina summed up, a grim look on her face as she turned to face Emma.<p>

She had caught sight of them a split second before Regina had broke the silence and she could feel some anger bubbling up as she watched the group of men rummaging through people's belongings.

Earlier on the day they had come across a survivor. An elderly man, looking as if he had walked for days and likely hadn't slept for just as long. His eyes were dulled as if the life in them had been all but extinguished and he hadn't responded to their attempts to hail him initially. When he finally did respond, it was with a blank stare that seemed to go right through them. As if he wasn't even seeing them and Emma had felt her heart clench as she thought of the horrors the man had likely witnessed.

They had given him one of their waterskins and a wrapped bundle of berries and Regina had attempted to give him directions to a town nearby. A town that they hoped would escape the destructive force that walked freely throughout the lands.

Emma had asked Regina if she thought the man might make it and the look she got in response dashed what little hope she had of that happening.

It was what made her all the more bitter now. The imagery of that man juxtaposed with these filthy bastards as they turned over things, rolled aside dead bodies as if they were nothing but trash.

"Hey guys look, seems we have company," one of them said as he stood up and faced them. He removed a short sword from the scabbard hanging off his hips and grinned at them, revealing two rows of yellow brown teeth.

"Regina.." she tried on a careful tone, because the look on her face spelled nothing good. In fact, she was surprised one of the looters wasn't already turned into a human torch by now.

"You will leave," Regina spoke up her voice dangerously low and an sneer on her face that made even Emma feel uncomfortable. "Right now," Regina continued and a roaring fireball formed in her raised hand. "This will be your only warning."

Bastards, Emma thought as her hands clutched the reins in a deathly grip, but at least they were smart bastards. Because they didn't even say anything, they merely stared at the fireball for a few seconds before they hurriedly scurried off along a path that would lead them away from the ruined city.

"You know I actually wished one of them would've had the guts to do something. I'm not one for wishing harm on another human being normally, but it would've been gratifying to see one of those douchebags run away screaming while you set him on fire."

"I agree actually," Regina said, looking slightly disappointed, snuffing the fireball as she stared after the looters. "Though I fear they'll be back later and it's very likely others will not hesitate to defile these ruins as well."

She could only sigh in response, knowing Regina was right but not wanting to think of what that future would look like. Greydrift was lost to the world after all. And Emma squared her jaw as her eyes skimmed across the huge craters in the landscape. One of them encompassed half of the destroyed city. The smell of death and decay hung heavily into the air and there were still traces of smoke as well. A few burned down buildings continued to smolder, small plumes of smoke rising up above them. Across the ruined city, close to one of the few remaining bits of walls that still stood upright, she had spied movement from the corners of her eyes. But try as she might, she had been unable to find any human beings moving about, despite her eyes tracking carefully across the myriad of destroyed buildings and debris.

"We should..move on," Emma muttered as she turned toward the trail they had been trying to follow.

Though it could hardly be called much of a trail at all, since there wasn't much that remained of it. One of the craters had ripped away a large chunk of the ground and most of the road that led out of Greydrift. They could see some hints of it in the distance however, the sandy road that would lead towards one of the mountain ranges. There was something dark and undefinable rising up along one of the peaks, that they could see even from where they were standing and when Emma had asked about it earlier, Regina had confirmed it could be the Tarrasque. But it was hard to be sure, with the storm clouds that hung heavily above those very same mountain ranges. At the same time, Emma had mused that it had been something of a pattern by now, the stormy weather that accompanied the creature everywhere it went.

"We should," Regina agreed, already spurring Alastor onwards. "If our guess earlier was correct then it hasn't crossed the mountains yet and we'll be able to catch up to it by the end of the day."

They rode away from the city in silence, though Emma was unable to stop herself from glancing backwards a few times. She kept wondering what would happen to the city now, if it might ever be rebuilt or if it would just be slowly reclaimed by nature.

Her thoughts strayed a little towards their upcoming confrontation with the massive creature and she felt a shiver pass across her spine. It seemed nigh unstoppable, the way it moved around, destroying without purpose while guided by an invisible hand. A perfect killing machine Regina had called it and Emma looked towards the mountain range in the distance, silently praying their plan would work.

As they travelled and the hours passed, they came across more craters in the terrain. Giant footprints that she mused would take decades to erase from the terrain again. They didn't find more survivors, but then she figured, the ones that escaped had likely travelled into the opposite direction; away from the danger.

"Emma.." her head shot up when her name was called and she immediately followed Regina's line of sight. To the right of them there was a small plume of smoke rising up towards the sky.

"I see it too."

"We don't have time to.."

Regina's voice was soft and there was a sadness lingering in her eyes as they shimmered with emotion.

"I know," Emma answered with a lump in her throat. "Like you said, we can still save others."

Regina's eyes flicked over briefly to catch her own before they fixated on the smoke rising up before dispersing into the sky again. And Emma wondered if she was thinking the same thing, how many other destroyed farms and houses they might still find before they found the creature.

If they even would manage to do so before nightfall, since the terrain was getting worse. Several times already they had rode right into a pile of uprooted trees and dirt, creating hills where there had been none before and making it increasingly more difficult for them to continue along the trail they had been following. She noticed Regina slowing down Alastor a little as she maneuvered her horse past another pile of toppled trees and carefully followed her lead.

"We're losing too much time this way," Regina complained, sounding clearly frustrated as they both rode around another area strewn with rocks and debris.

Emma chewed the inside of her cheek as she had noticed the same thing. Sometimes she had to guide Pyrois around things sticking up out of the muddy ground, fearful of any injury to her horse from a simple misstep.

Suddenly Regina slowed down even more and Emma frowned as she followed Regina's line of sight to the mountains range ahead of them that was now clearly visible. It seemed to have collapsed partially, boulders and rock strewn downwards across the slopes as if something had crashed into it. And as she continued to look at the badly traversable terrain spreading out in front of them, she mused it wasn't too far from the truth. The craters in the landscape at least seemed to directly line up with the collapsed mountain side and she feared the creature had actually travelled further ahead than they had initially assumed.

"You have something in mind? Because I can't even see that shape anymore that we saw before and it might have already crossed the mountains for all we know." She gnashed her teeth at the thought, not wanting to consider the possibility that they were already too late to try and set their plan into motion. "And if we have to move through this mess," she muttered as she made a gesture to the mountainside that had spilled across most of the visible land in front of them. "Well it doesn't seem doable to me at least, so we'd have to take a detour around it and there are no guarantees any of the mountain passes are still there either."

Instead of responding, Regina slowed Alastor to a halt. She dismounting gracefully and kept the reins in her hand, leading the horse along towards what Emma thought to be the flattened remains of a farmhouse. Though it was hard to make out exactly what kind of building it had been before, since a dozen ripped out trees were piled haphazardly on top of it.

"I know," Regina finally spoke up, her eyes tracing the range of mountains that loomed up in front of them. "I think the Tarrasque is still there though and while we can't see it from here, we can still see the mountain," Regina said, pointing towards the distance where the hills and trees turned into the foot of the mountain range. There was a large chunk missing from that particular mountain top as well, but otherwise it seemed mostly intact. It was quite a distance away still and Emma frowned as she wondered what Regina had in mind.

"Magic," Regina explained simply, as if that would answer all the questions that had tumbled through Emma's mind. "It might be slightly risky, but I think it's our only option."

Emma's eyes went wide as she suddenly understood what Regina was saying. "You want to teleport us there? To the mountaintop?"

"No, not all the way to the top, with the way this entire mountain range looks I fear any sudden displacement might set off a rockslide. Besides we can see just as well from the lower ledges where the terrain rises above the trees." Her expression changed into something more serious, her eyes hardening as she stared into the distance. "**It **will be hard to miss once we're up there."

"Something else on your mind?" She inquired when she noticed Regina continued looking right past her, as if it lost in her own thoughts. Then Emma thought of something else and continued. "Uhm, do you need to rest before attempting that? I know sleep was a low priority last night and.."

Regina smiled and held up her hand to cut Emma off. "No dear. Tricky as this might be, I'm perfectly capable of casting this spell as it is." She paused, her eyes twinkling slightly in the fading sunlight. "Determined as you were, in keeping me up all night."

Emma could feel the rising warmth on her cheeks and quickly questioned Regina before too many memories yet again got a chance to surface in her thoughts. "So why are we stopping here then since.." She halted mid-sentence and her eyebrows rose when Regina grabbed Pyrois reins and motioned for her to dismount as well.

She followed after Regina as she led both horses towards one side of the farm, a part of the stables behind it still standing upright. "This is as good of a location as any, there's plenty to eat here and water is easily accessible nearby. I believe this is.. was.. a farm, though it seems the owners must've gotten away in time." She started undoing the straps holding the saddles and their packs on their horses' backs. "We should take only the bare essentials with us and leave the rest behind."

Emma's mouth fell open for a moment as he finally realized what Regina was planning. "You want to leave our horses behind? But wouldn't we need them to catch up with the creature once we locate it?" She patted Pyrois' who was now chewing on a bit of hay. "Besides I really hate the thought of abandoning them here, with looters and everything else happening." She hadn't expected she would feel so bad about what Regina suggested and desperately tried to think of a way to keep their horses with them. While she had never been overly fond of horses, she had grown quite attached to Pyrois, especially during this harrowing journey they had undertaken.

Regina still smiled at her and placed the saddle she had removed on the ground. "I know, they're good horses and I'll miss Alastor dearly, but they're also getting close to collapsing from exhaustion. They'll do fine here, and once.. Well, we'll see what happens." She turned to look towards the mountain range again. "And to answer your unspoken question, yes I could try to teleport them with us. And in many cases I would do so without a second thought."

"But?" Emma questioned, fiddling with the straps holding the saddle on her horse, still not wanting to leave Pyrois behind.

"It will be difficult enough to teleport us both up there, it's quite a long distance away from here and I haven't attempted this in a while. Taking two horses with us as well will just complicate matters even more. Besides how do you think a horse would react to suddenly finding itself on a ledge like that instead of a grassy field?"

"Right..." Emma easily recalled how queasy being teleported had made her feel on several occasions. Even when she understood and expected it. To an animal, it would have to be an utterly terrifying experience. "I hadn't really thought about that actually."

"I also have no idea how much we will be able to see of our surroundings once we get there," Regina continued. "It might take several more teleports to get us close enough to the Tarrasque and it will be close to undoable while we have the horses with us."

Emma sighed deeply before finally removing the remaining packs and the saddle from Pyrois back. "I still wished there was another way though."

"You and I both, dear.

Once they strapped a few of the packs together and had slung them across their backs, Emma gave Pyrois a few more pats and then left the mare behind and followed after Regina.

"They'll be fine," Regina said, as if she had noticed Emma's inner turmoil.

"I do know that, but I guess it's hard to consider the possibility that we might not ever see them again after today. You know how I am with horses, though I always loved riding on Pyrois whenever I went somewhere with my parents. I can't even explain why, really," she muttered, flicking her eyes to Regina and smiling when she caught the other woman glancing across her shoulder at the pair of horses chewing on a bale of hay. "I suppose I felt a connection with her. She always went in for nudges at my chest whenever I felt sad or particularly emotional."

Emma squared her jaw as they walked around a few more uprooted trees and remains of what had once been a wooden fence. "I just..I just want this all to be over with, you know?" she said, her chin dipping to her chest as she imagined her parents and Henry at the castle, completely unaware of the danger heading their way. "I want things to go back to normal. I want to go home and spend time with my family and friends." She swept aside strands of blonde hair which had fell down across her face. "With you."

Fingertips slid below her chin and tilted it up and Emma swallowed at the intensity that shone in Regina's eyes as they locked with her own. "I know Emma," Regina murmured. The pads of her fingers stroked across Emma's cheek and she let out a shuddery breath in response.

A moment later, Regina lowered the hand again and her eyes closed, a determined look on her face as she turned to face the mountainside they would teleport to. "Are you ready?"

"Not really," Emma grumbled, even as she took hold of a hand Regina was extending towards her. "I think I'll forever hate this part."

There was no response, but Emma tensed up when she could feel the first signs of magic buildup sparking across her skin. A moment later there was the feeling of displacement, of weightlessness, of one moment flowing into the other and a kaleidoscope of colors just as her feet touched the ground again.

"Ugh," she grunted, blinking as she attempted to steady herself.

"I can't see it," Regina grit out next to her, "but I can hear it. We're actually closer than I would've thought."

"That's good right?" Emma asked as she blinked and tried to adjust to the sudden height she was now standing at. Below her there was a valley filled with trees, though at the far side of it there had been a collapse of one of the mountain peaks. It had flooded part of the valley with rock and sand and the avalanche had taken countless trees along with it.

"Perhaps. We'll have to cross towards the ledge over there," Regina said as she pointed towards a rocky outcrop not too far away from where they were standing.

A loud thump suddenly echoed across the valley and Emma tightened her hands to fists as she imagined the creature moving about. Destroying even more things, more towns and her thoughts strayed to Stonegate which had likely already been reduced to rubble much like Greydrift had.

"Emma.."

"Yeah. I know," she growled out through clenched teeth. "I just don't think I can bear the sight of even more destruction, considering what we've already seen." She cursed but then clasped Regina's hand in her own again.

When they arrived at their next destination, there was another loud thump and Emma swore she could feel the very mountain below them shake along with it. "Fucking hell," she cursed again. Then she caught sight of the creature moving ahead of them, one of its legs having crushed another one of the mountain peaks to dust and rocks. "God, I can't believe how big it is."

"We're too late," Regina whispered next to her, clear regret sounding through in her voice.

"What do you mea.." But then she saw what Regina was looking at and her mouth opened, but no sounds escaped as her eyes flicked across what remained of Stonegate.

A large part of the nearby mountain had slid downwards and she could only barely make out some parts of buildings sticking up through the field of sand and stone. Two clear strips of land stretched out across the other side of the town, with only a few toppled trees lying across the barren wasteland. She knew what had created those strips, having witnessed the effects of the maelstrom the creature used to consume everything in front of it, firsthand near Greydrift.

It was only then that she spied the movements across the road leading northbound and away from Stonegate. Dozens of people seemed to be on the run, though the Tarrasque was turning their way and Emma shook her head in disbelief.

"There's people down there."

"I'm not sure we ca.."

"We should at least try," Emma insisted, unable to tear her eyes away from the group of people.

"We're close enough for me to attempt some spells at least."

"To gain its attention?"

"That would be the idea, yes," Regina stated, a dark look passing across her features. She dropped the packs slung across her back and rolled her shoulders.

Another loud thump, the earth shaking beneath their feet and Emma eyed the mountain top above them warily.

A large fireball appeared in her outstretched hand and Regina let it sail towards the creature that towered high above any of the mountain peaks around it. She repeated the gesture a few times and Emma could feel her heart hammering in her throat in response. Her eyes continued to flick towards the creature and the group of people slightly ahead of it and she realized with some dismay that the moment it would open up its maw now, every single one of those people would end up dead. They had nowhere to run and Emma could feel her throat constrict at the thought.

"It's not working is it?"

"No," came the strained response. "I'm trying a few different spells."

"What if you..shit," she exclaimed, taking a few steps forward as she watched the Tarrasque's maw opening. "Fuck..Regina!" she yelled out helplessly.

"I'm sorry..I'm.." Regina's eyes were squeezed shut, her hands extended outwards and a huge boulder, the size of a bus, suddenly flew through the air and impacted against the creature's massive body. Sweat beads were clearly visible across her forehand and her face was contorted in something akin to pain. She was shaking as another boulder flew through the air, after which another one followed and then Regina collapsed to her knees, a sob welling up from her throat as she sat on her knees in the dirt.

In front of them, the Tarrasque had started to suck everything towards its maw and Emma let out a little cry of anguish as they were forced to watch the people on the road desperately scrambling for something to hold onto. It didn't matter though, as whatever they managed to grab hold of were soon also hurdling through the air and vanishing.

"It didn't work," Regina stuttered out, a few stray tears escaping from her eyes. "I'm sorry, I tried everything I could think of."

"W-what.." Emma scraped her throat, her voice sounding scratchy and raw. "What should we do next?"

"We can't go back." Regina slowly stood upright on wobbly knees. "I have enough magic to continue teleporting us a few more times. If we take a small break during the night, I should have enough reserves afterwards to get us to Sanlow. They have fairly large stables and a garrison of abled men, we should be able to get help there."

If they made it in time, Emma thought, though she didn't voice her worries. Her eyes flicked to the barren strip of land in front of the creature and she wiped away the tears that had welled up in her eyes with an angry gesture.

"It stopped for now at least," Regina continued. But even as she said the words, the Tarrasque moved again, one of its legs planting down on another mountain slope and flattening everything in its vicinity.

"Let's just..go, we don't have any time to lose."

She grabbed hold of Regina's hand again and they teleported to another mountain side, just in front of the creature. It gave them a different angle of the Tarrasque and after she had taken a moment to recover from the motion sickness, Emma walked over to the edge of the ledge they had landed on.

It stood motionlessly in front of her. Its hardened skin riddled with plantlife and mosses and Emma wondered once more about its origin.

Another thudding sound and Emma swayed slightly as she felt the of the terrain shifting under her feet. And then it dropped out from underneath her, almost as if it was collapsing and Emma's eyes grew huge when an earthquake-like ripple across the ground she was standing on, toppled her over.

The last thing she saw was a cloud of dust and there was the distinct sensation of falling, sliding downwards, before everything went completely black.

**-x-x-x-**


	15. Chapter 15

**15.**

* * *

><p>"Emma!" she called out, coughing as she attempted to see something through the cloud of dust obscuring her view. "Emma, are you okay?!"<p>

She got no answer however and Regina could feel a sense of dread curl around her heart and squeeze it in a death grip.

"Emma?!" she yelled out, not caring how frantic she sounded.

One of her feet struck against a pebble and she watched as it skidded across the ground before toppling across what remained of the mountain side. As she approached it, more of the mountain crumbled away and her heart thudded away wildly in her chest.

After a few more seconds she managed to maneuver herself towards a spot that seemed safer and her eyes skimmed across the rocks and rubble lying along the mountain slope just below her position.

"Emma?" she tried once more, her eyes tearing up when no answer came.

But then she spied the glimpse of fur sticking out between the white-grey mass of sand and stone. Without giving it any conscious thought she teleported herself downwards, using more magic to clear away the debris that covered Emma's form.

Blood ran down Emma's face in small rivulets and her hair was matted and covered in sand, sticky at one side of it with more of the spilled blood. Large scratches marred her face, and one of her eyes was swollen shut. A fine layer of dust was clinging to the blood smeared across her cheeks and forehead.

"Emma.." she whispered, cradling Emma's head against her chest as she cried out. She was still breathing, but shallowly and Regina swallowed and used more magic to free one of Emma's arms.

Regina cleared the rest of her body carefully and let out a gasp of shock when she noticed the mangled state of one of Emma's legs. It was covered in blood and she could clearly see one of the bones protruding at an odd angle.

Sucking in a breath, Regina looked up and then to the side, calculating. Calculating over and over as hot tears ran down her cheeks unchecked.

Then she looked at Emma's body once more and made a decision.

* * *

><p>"It wasn't your fault you know?"<p>

_Snow_. Of course, Regina thought as she sighed deeply, it couldn't have been anyone else but Snow that would track her down before she left. When she stopped in front of Regina, she noticed her eyes were red, puffy and she looked as tired and drained as Regina felt.

"In a way it was," she muttered out.

Her mind flashed images of Emma standing in front of her, with her back towards Regina. One moment she had been there, the next she was gone and Regina couldn't remember anything in between. She had replayed the situation a thousand times and she couldn't think of anything she might've been able to do differently. But it still haunted her and the guilt still sat heavily in her chest like a stone, making it feel sometimes as if she wasn't able to breathe. As if she might never be able to breathe properly again.

"Is that why you're leaving? Because…"

"Snow," she interrupted. She was tired and she mused she likely looked like death warmed over. And she really, really, could do without this woman in particular attempting to convince her to stay. "I can't.."

Not even for Henry, though at least their reunion had been bittersweet to her. But afterwards… Afterwards when she had explained it to him, he had been angry. Angry and hurt, his eyes shooting accusatory glances her way as he poked with his finger into her chest and accused her of being a coward. It stung when it happened, when she left his room and slumped against the wall outside of it, covering her face with her hands as she willed back the tears.

It still stung when she thought about it now.

"She would've wanted you to…"

The words actually brought tears to her eyes and she had to hold onto one of the stables' walls for support. "I can't...Snow. If there's anything you need, you'll know where to find me…"

"Will you at least come back sometimes?"

"I…" she hesitated, her eyes flicking to the saddle, working her mind to think of something she could say to that question. "I'll try," she finally said as she swung herself onto the horse's back.

It was a lie and the look Snow gave her as she spurred her horse onwards, proved she aware of this fact as well.

* * *

><p>"I feel like we've been here before."<p>

She instantly bolted upright from the stone by the pond she had been sitting on, the book she had been holding falling onto the ground with a soft thump. Her heart raced as she froze up for a moment, before her eyes flicked towards the woman standing a few paces away.

"Emma?"

"I don't look that different, do I?" Emma joked, though it came out slightly awkward and strained. She was leaning heavily on the cane she held in one of her hands and Regina felt an invisible band tighten around her chest as Emma winced as she took another step forward and closer to Regina.

She was rendered speechless, watching almost fearfully as Emma approached her slowly, her face contorting in pain with every step she took. A small scar now ran across one of her cheeks another one across her forehead, disappearing into her hairline. But otherwise she didn't look at all like the pale, ghostly image of a woman she had left behind at the castle, months ago.

"Not going to say anything else? No lengthy explanations detailing all the reasons why you couldn't stay with me? No excuses given to undo how hurt I felt when I woke up and heard you weren't there?"

"I'm.."

"I know, okay? I know," Emma sighed, having finally reached the rock on which Regina had been sitting. She hopped a few times, muffling a cry of pain as she sat down on the other side of it and faced Regina. "Just tell me why, Regina, because I don't get it. Because all I know is that you nearly killed yourself in an attempt save me."

She had in fact, collapsed as soon as she had removed the stasis spell on Emma's body. Though only after Snow and David had convinced her to let the healers do their work. And she remembered it so well. She remembered every moment of that journey. Every minute she had spent riding along on that horse and carrying Emma's body along with her on an improvised sled she had tied behind it.

"You saved my life, but then you left. And all these weeks, every minute I spent trying to learn to walk again, I couldn't stop wondering why you left."

"Emma…" she whispered, her hands balled at her sides to prevent herself from reaching out. Even though it was killing her when she was so close to Emma once more.

"Henry really misses you, you know? Every time he returned from this place he was sad for days. And he kept saying he would figure out a way to convince you to come see me. And I…" Emma sighed and Regina watched one of her fingers draw circles on the rock they were sitting on.

She watched as the myriad of emotions played out on Emmas features and she wished she was able to suppress the memories which assaulted her with the mention of Henry's name. Because there was a pang of regret when she thought of all those times he had stopped by. Even though they had talked about it. Had in fact talked though all night when he first visited her. Talked and talked until they heard the birds waking up and the first beams of light came through her windows. He had told her stories about everything that had happened at the castle and she had told him about the time they had spent away from the Kingdom in turn. And each time he had prepared to leave again, he had tried to talk her into coming with him. And just as many times she had declined.

She had been conflicted about it though. Torn between wanting to see Emma again and the guilt that haunted her with the thought of how she hadn't been able to protect her during that fateful day. Even though she knew for a fact that neither of them would've been able to predict the Tarrasque would collapse right there and then and become inert once more.

"Did you know my parents were vehemently trying to convince me to clap you in irons and forcefully move you back to the castle so you could talk to me?"

She actually did have an inkling about that. Since she knew Snow had visited her cottage one day, a few weeks ago. But she had been at Sanlow then, helping with providing shelter for some of the survivors that had escaped from Stonegate. When she had returned there had been a note left behind, tucked beneath a stone, in front of her door. It only had one line written on it, pleading her to return to the castle.

Emma had stopped drawing circles and was looking straight at her. Fire burned in emerald depths as they caught her own and Regina felt captivated, unable to look away.

"I love you."

It was the one thing she hadn't expected and her mouth fell open in surprise.

"I love you and everything I said before I got injured was the truth. I want to do more things with you, travel to places, take Henry along with us and just...get away from it all. A normal life…"

"You were.." her voice hitched as the words finally spilled across her lips and she couldn't stop the tears from falling. "You were dying. When you were lying there, in that bed, pale, barely even breathing and they said…" Emma moved closer and Regina stopped breathing for a moment when a hand reached out to cover one of her own.

"They said you might not make it through the night and I just.. I'm sorry, but I couldn't. I couldn't stay. I've seen people I love die before my eyes without being able to do anything about it. I couldn't do that again, Emma, I coul.." Her words get cut off by a finger settling across her lips.

Soft lips pressed a kiss against her forehead and Regina squeezed her eyes shut, all of the welled up emotions making her throat constrict as a few more tears escaped and ran down her cheeks.

"I'm still here. You likely saved my life that day, you know that?"

A beatific smile greeted her when she opened her eyes again. "What about..your leg," she questioned after a few seconds of hesitation.

"I'll eventually be able to walk again without the help of this damned cane, if that is what you're asking. But I guess there aren't going to be any marathons in my future."

"I'm sor.."

This time there aren't fingers that prevent her finishing her apology, but Emma's lips. They brushed slowly and gently along her own, the contact light and fleeting, before Emma's tongue flicked against her lips a few times and she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss.

"Don't," Emma fumbled out shakily, as they broke apart. Fingers slide along her cheeks to envelop them between Emma's hands and she leaned in to rest her forehead against Regina's own, taking a few shuddering breaths. "Just stop apologizing, okay?" A smile curved her lips upwards then and Regina rose an eyebrow when Emma grinned at her. "Though I can think of a few ways in which you can make it up to me."

"Do you want to talk about that?" Regina inquired, feigning innocence and smiling slightly at the throwback to the night they had spend in the abandoned farmhouse.

"I think we've talked enough for the moment actually," Emma shot back, returning the smile so easily it almost felt as if the past few months could just fall away like that. Though they didn't, not entirely, since a moment later Emma's expression became more serious again. "We can talk more later, since I have questions, hell my questions have questions and.." she sighed, but then pressed another gentle kiss against Regina's lips that she gladly returned for a moment, before they pulled apart again.

"And afterwards," Emma continued on a breathless tone, "well, I recall you did promise me a trip to the coast after all."

**-x-x-x-**

**-x-x-x-**

* * *

><p><em>The End (but possibly TBC! thanks for the responses for those who didn't read it on AO3 yet..and those who did ;) )<em>


End file.
